(Montpellier) A thousand people, including many elected officials and representatives of several religions, gathered Tuesday evening in Montpellier (South) to denounce anti-Semitism and support the Jewish community, three days after the arson attack on the synagogue in the neighboring seaside town of La Grande-Motte.
“Your presence here is a snub to the advocates of hatred,” Perla Danan, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF) of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, told the crowd gathered in the city center.
The synagogue of La Grande-Motte, about twenty kilometers from Montpellier, was the scene of an attack on Saturday which could have turned into a tragedy and whose perpetrator was arrested in the neighboring town of Nîmes after a brief escape.
The suspect was caught on CCTV footage, with a Palestinian flag on his belt, trying to set fire to the synagogue on Saturday morning, just before the morning Shabbat service. Only one municipal police officer was injured, slightly, when a gas cylinder stored near a barbecue in the synagogue’s parking lot exploded.
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PHOTO PASCAL GUYOT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A thousand people, including many elected officials and representatives of several religions, gathered on Tuesday evening in Montpellier.
“It is a miracle that we did not have to deplore any victims, due to this desire to kill that was that of the suspect,” stressed in Montpellier the national president of the Consistoire israélite de France, Elie Korchia. “When a synagogue is attacked […]”It is the values of the Republic that are being attacked,” he added, facing the tricolour flags waved in the audience.
“We need this gathering to be not only a gesture of fraternity, but a moment of republican reaffirmation,” explained the president of the national authorities of CRIF, Yonathan Arfi.
“I call on the republican forces to make our speeches unambiguous. To combat anti-Semitism, to stop the nauseating amalgams with the Middle East conflict,” demanded the president of the Jewish community of La Grande-Motte, Sabine Atlan, while demonstrators carried placards stating: “Our lives are worth more than the importation of the conflict.”