It was ten years ago. The Islamist terrorist Mohammed Merah killed seven people: three soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban. Then three Jewish children and a teacher in front of the Ozar Hatorah school (since renamed Ohr Torah) in the Toulouse district of the Roseraie. To pay tribute to the victims, two ceremonies are planned, within the premises of the establishment and at the Halles aux Grains.
A first ceremony behind closed doors
The “real” ten years of the Ozar Hatorah massacre will take place on Saturday, the Sabbath day. The tribute was therefore postponed to the next day, Sunday. A day that will start at 10:30 am at the Jewish school. This first community ceremony will take place behind closed doors, but the mayor of Toulouse has still been invited. Security will be reinforced around the school.
A second interreligious ceremony
The public tribute will take place in the afternoon at the Halle aux Grains. About 2,000 people are expected. A fitting tribute “republican and interreligious” we specify on the side of the CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France in Occitania, which organizes the ceremony. Franck Touboul, its President, will speak before Emmanuel Macron and Isaac Herzog the Israeli President. Other political personalities are expected: Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and all Prime Ministers since 2012. Some presidential candidates were also invited. Invitations were also extended to ambassadors from several Arab countries and Germany. A concentration of personalities that will lead to the establishment of an important security device.
A large security system around the Halle aux Grains
Several scenarios are being studied, but we are moving towards restrictions for accessing Place Dupuy between the Canal du Midi and the war memorial. They could be more or less strict depending on the hours, like when Emmanuel Macron came to Toulouse in mid-February for the European Space Summit at the Pierre Baudis congress center, Compans-Cafarelli district. A command meeting on the subject is to be held on Monday.
The Halle aux Grains has been scrutinizedlast Monday, by the Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic, a service which ensures the immediate protection of Emmanuel Macron, to detect possible security breaches.
The services of the Israeli president have most certainly also made scouts, even if nothing has filtered on this subject. So-called “sensitive” religious personalities are expected as Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia or like Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of the city of Drancy. He is targeted by a fatwa and regularly receives death threats for his positions against radical Islam and his ties of friendship with the Jewish community. Sunday promises to be “very busy” for the police, according to a trade unionist.