President Reuven Rivlin told mourning relatives of the four French Jewish victims of Islamic terror on Tuesday that they and Jews from all over the world should come to Israel out of love” and not out of fear.
The victims, Philippe Braham, 40, Yohan Cohen, 22, Yoav Hattab, 21, and Francois-Michel Saada, in his 60s, are being buried at the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem.
Braham had owned an apartment in Israel and had hoped to live in the country. Instead, he was gunned down in Paris and came to Israel in a coffin.
“Yoav, Yohan, Philippe, Francois-Michel, this is not how we wanted to welcome you to Israel,” said President Rivlin. ”
He added:
This is not how we wanted you to arrive in the Land of Israel, this is not how we wanted to see you come home, to the State of Israel, and to Jerusalem, its capital. We wanted you alive, we wanted for you, life.
To the family of Braham, Rivlin said, “Philippe, you wanted to shop for the Sabbath, and what is more Jewish than preparing, shopping on a Friday, for the holy Sabbath day.
“’My father is a hero’”, wept Rafael, your son. “’He was murdered, simply because he was a Jew.’ What can we say to your dear wife Philippe? What can we say to your three young children, whose cries of ‘Daddy’ will be met with silence?
“Francois-Michel, the apartment that you bought here in Israel, was ready for your arrival. You so wanted to make Aliyah to live here with us. But you will never now be able to affix a mezuzah upon the doorpost of your home in Israel.”
The president recited the verse from the Torah, “What man is there, who has built a new house and has not yet inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle,” and noted, “but for you, the war came to you, and the murderer’s hand destroyed everything.
“Yoav, you were here, just two weeks ago in Jerusalem, for the first time. You stood at the Western Wall, you were photographed wrapped in the Israeli flag. Today, you are here for the second, and the final time. As a Jewish hero, at one with us.
“Yohan, you could have got away, escaped, you could have run – but you did not surrender. You fought with the murderer, to save the life a three-year-old boy. You succeeded in that, but paid with your life. Just 20 old, and already a hero.
” The murderer made sure to be in a Jewish shop, and only then did he carry out the massacre. This was pure, venomous evil, which stirs the very worst of memories. This is sheer hatred of Jews; abhorrent, dark and premeditated….
“While the last weeks and months have proven, that terror does not discriminate between blood, we cannot escape the fact that this terrorism, explicitly targets the Jewish people…..
“Regardless of what may be the sick motives of terrorists, it is beholden upon the leaders of Europe to act, and commit to firm measures to return a sense of security and safety to the Jews of Europe….
“We cannot allow it to be the case, that in the year 2015, 70 years since the end of the Second World War, Jews are afraid to walk in the streets of Europe with skullcaps and tzitzit.
“It cannot be allowed, that we should see in the news, frequent vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, of Jews being beaten, and of synagogues and communities under attack….
At these difficult times, I have learned how much we truly are one people. I understand how important it is that we stay together, close together, regardless of geographical distance. And today too, we are brothers, members of one family, with heads bowed, with tears of sorrow. A bond which cannot be unraveled by time or distance. A bond of spirit and blood….