“We have the impression that the bestiality of October 7 is forgotten,” says the regional president of Crif

Un rassemblement, de la communauté juive notamment, à Montpellier, après l'attaque du 7 octobre. – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Six mois après la tragédie du 7 octobre, le ressenti de la communauté juive de la région reste douloureux.

"We have the impression that the bestiality of October 7 has been forgotten. We moved on… As if this bestiality was nothing more than an anecdote.

Thus Perla Danan, regional president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, opened her remarks at the time to discuss the feelings of the Jewish community in the former -Languedoc-Roussillon, six months after the tragedy.

A rise in anti-Semitism

His first feeling touches on this incomprehension in the face of a form of progressive forgetting, after the astonishment of the first days, of the first weeks: "And add the rise in anti-Semitism, and all that goes with it, the signs that we hide, the reinforced security measures, by ourselves, or by the part of the State, our festivals, our gatherings, which we report to the authorities, these kids who get into the habit of going to a carnival surrounded by soldiers…&quot ;

"The pogrom of October 7"

This is the picture that Perla Danan paints, six months after "the pogrom of October 7, because it’s good of a pogrom that we are talking about". And the regional president of Crif asks: "Why today turn against the Jews of the whole world if it is not in an anti-Semitic approach ? It is not because we are in a complex and terrible war situation there, that we must import the conflict here, in France in particular. With demonstrations every day to say "Israel is a murderer !"" is’unworthy.

She continues: "It’it’is the conflict in the Middle East that we’re importing here, it fuels, particularly the from political parties who want to benefit from it. And that only leads to anger, it creates hatred and anti-Semitism" she still deplores.< /p>

Persistent silences

How she regrets the silences that she still considers too numerous, and persistent, six months later: "We have forgotten the lack of news from the hostages, we no longer talk about it. And the silence of many feminist associations in the face of the rapes that were committed. Post-mortem rapes too, women whose breasts were cut off… It would have been good to remember that rape is not a weapon of war, no? This cruelty towards the human condition has been forgotten with what is happening in Gaza, where it is very hard too, for people's lives, it's pathetic, I in no way minimize the suffering of civilians, on one side or the other" .

"An open wound"

Michèle Bensoussan, president of the Simone-Veil Jewish Cultural Center in Montpellier, does not say anything else when she states that "October 7 remains an open wound, a date that we will never forget, a disastrous day, for Israelis, and for all Jewish communities in the world. It is enough to say “October 7”, and we know what we are talking about, as for September 11&nbsp."

She estimates that "all families are affected in Israel, between the victims of October 7, the hostages, the soldiers killed in combat… It’is a small country, eight million inhabitants…" It targets "Hamas , terrorists, responsible for all the misery, both Israeli and Palestinian". And remains forbidden in the face "of this incredible rise in anti-Semitism, in France, in Europe, in the United States…"

And when asked what outcome she envisages for this conflict, Michèle Bensoussan has only one answer to offer: " We must trust the Israeli people, capable of absolute resilience. Because we always prioritize life over death, always".

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