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Israel welcomes France anti-Semitism view

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed France's 'very firm position' on anti-Semitism.

Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AAP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he appreciates the "very firm position" taken by French leaders against "the new anti-Semitism and terrorism" in France.

He has also thanked Lassana Bathily, the Muslim employee of a Jewish supermarket who saved several hostages during a jihadist attack on Friday.

"Our common enemy is radical, extremist Islam - not normal Islam," Netanyahu said at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, after briefly joining other world leaders in a march against extremism through the capital that drew up to 1.6 million people.

Four of the 17 fatalities in France's three-day wave of violence were Jews killed in an attack on a kosher supermarket.

"Israel is today at Europe's side, but I would like Europe to be on Israel's side too," Netanyahu said.

"Those who killed and massacred Jews in a synagogue recently in Israel and those who killed Jews and journalists in Paris are part of the same global terror movement," he added, referring to a November attack in Jerusalem.

"We must condemn them in the same way, we must fight them in the same way."

France's large Jewish community is increasingly on edge after a series of anti-Semitic incidents including Friday's hostage-taking at the supermarket in eastern Paris.


2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP



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