Rally in Old City
צילום: חיים צח
J’lem: Hundreds attend Halimi memorial
Members of French-Jewish community in Israel gather in Old City’s Jewish Quarter to protest last week’s anti-Semitic murder of Ilan Halimi in Paris suburb; organizers say Halimi was in process of making aliyah
Hundreds of members of the French-Jewish community in Israel gathered Wednesday evening in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem to protest last week’s anti-Semitic murder of Ilan Halimi in a Paris suburb.
Demonstrators, young and old alike, poured into the Cardo (reconstructed main street of Byzantine Jerusalem from the 6th century), holding signs reading “God will avenge his death.”
'It could have happened to us.' (Photo: Haim Tzach)
The rally, which was held at the request of Halimi’s family, concluded with a march to the Western Wall, where those on hand read from the book of Psalms for the ascent of Halimi’s soul.
“Ilan gathered us here so we may think and pray for our people and for the Jews in France who are in peril and do not understand that they must not remain in a hostile country,” said Yosef Zchaka, chairman of the Lehavi association, which organized the rally.
“Like Halimi, we too were young Jews in France,” Hannah Finkelstein, who made aliyah in 1994, said.
“It could have happened to us, and we came to express our outrage for what happened.”
Another protester, Idit, said, “There is terrible anti-Semitism in France; it’s time the French Jews make aliyah.”
The rally organizers told the participants that Halimi himself was in the initial stages of making aliyah, but did not live to realize his dream.
