MK Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid), head of the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, on Friday said he would convene an emergency session of the committee in the wake of the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris in which four people were killed.
Razvozov said that Israel must be prepared to absorb Jews who come from France or anywhere else in the world in the wake of the ongoing terrorism.
“The terrorist incident that occurred in the heart of the Jewish community in Paris only increases the fear of French Jews to live as Jews,” he said, adding, “It is therefore important that the Israeli government will work with all the means at its disposal to ensure the safety of Jews in the Diaspora.”
“The Jews of the world must know, especially on such a difficult day, that Israel is ready at any time to be their home and shelter. In the meeting I will chair on the subject I will make sure that the Israeli government is prepared to absorb the Jews of France, in a manner which ensures their personal safety,” said Razvozov.
France has seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism in recent years, and it flared particularly in 2014 and during Operation Protective Edge, with violent protests in Paris.
France led the list of countries from which Jews made aliyah to Israel in 2014, with almost 7,000 new French immigrants, more than double the 3,400 who came last year.
Earlier on Friday, as the hostage situation was unfolding, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Israel is following with great concern the events in Paris and that the Foreign Ministry is in contact with the Israeli embassy in France.
Liberman said that the terrorist attacks over the past three days are not only against the French people, not only against the Jews of France, but against the entire free world. “This is another attempt by the dark forces of radical Islam to impose fear and terror on the West, and the entire international community must stand together and act with determination against terrorism,” he added.
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett, who also serves as Minister of Diaspora Affairs, spoke on Friday afternoon, just prior to Shabbat, with the leaders of the Jewish community in France.
The leaders updated Bennett on the hostage taking at the grocery store in Paris, and Bennett told them, “The State of Israel is on the side of the French Jewish community and is willing to help in any way possible.”
MK Eli Yishai, head of the Ha’am Itanu party, on Friday afternoon spoke with the Deputy Ambassador of France in Israel and expressed his pain and the pain of Israeli citizens over the latest events taking place in France.
“Who else but us knows and recognizes what terrorism and bereavement are about. The hearts of all the Jewish people are with you,” said Yishai.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
