DEVELOPMENTS
• Millions of people rallied against terror Sunday in France, and similar rallies were held in cities around the world.
• World leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas joined the Paris demonstration.
• Lassana Bathily, a young Islamic immigrant from Mali, was hailed for hiding Jewish customers in the Kosher market where he worked in Paris as it was attacked by Islamic militants last week.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would bring the bodies of four of the Jewish victims of the market attack back to Israel for burial.
• A video, made before the attacks, emerged, showing one of the attackers pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militants and displaying his arsenal of weapons.
— From news services
Amid intense security and with throngs rivaling those that followed the liberation of Paris from the Nazis, the city became “the capital of the world” for a day.
More than 40 world leaders headed the somber procession — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas; Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — setting aside their differences with a common rallying cry: We stand together against barbarity, and we are all Charlie.
At least 1.2 million to 1.6 million people streamed slowly through the streets and across France to mourn the victims of deadly attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher supermarket and police officers — violence that tore deep into the nation’s sense of security in a way some compared to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
“Our entire country will rise up toward something better,” French President Francois Hollande said.
The attacks tested France’s proud commitment to its liberties, which authorities may now curtail to ensure greater security. Marchers recognized this as a watershed moment.
“It’s a different world today,” said Michel Thiebault, 70.
Illustrating his point, there were cheers Sunday for police vans that wove through the crowds — a rare occurrence at the many demonstrations that the French have staged throughout their rebellious history,.
Many shed the aloof attitude for which Parisians are famous, helping strangers with directions, cheering and crying together. Sad and angry but fiercely defending their freedom of expression, the marchers honored the dead and brandished pens or flags of other nations.
In addition to those in France, giant rallies were held in major cities around the world, including London, Madrid and New York — all attacked at various times by al-Qaida-linked extremists — as well as Cairo, Sydney, Stockholm, Tokyo and elsewhere.
In Paris, the Interior Ministry said the number of people attending the rallies wwas too large to count, noting that the crowds were too big to fit on the official march route and spread to other streets.
Later, the ministry said 3.7 million marched throughout France, including roughly 1.2 million to 1.6 million in Paris.
“I hope that at the end of the day everyone is united. Everyone — Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists,” said marcher Zakaria Moumni. “We are humans first of all, and nobody deserves to be murdered like that. Nobody.”
On Republic Square, deafening applause rang out as the world leaders walked past, amid tight security and an atmosphere of togetherness amid adversity. Families of the victims, holding each other for support, marched in the front along with journalists working for the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. Several wept openly.
“Je Suis Charlie” — “I Am Charlie,” read legions of posters and banners. Many people waved editorial cartoons, the French tricolor and other national flags.
As night fell on the unusually unified city, some lit candles.
“It’s important to be here for freedom for tolerance and for all the victims. It’s sad we had to get to this point for people to react against intolerance, racism and fascism,” said Caroline Van Ruymbeke, 32.
Hollande joined Netanyahu in a visit to a synagogue Sunday night as authorities sought to reassure the Jewish population — Europe’s largest — that it is safe to stay in France. About 7,000 of France’s half-million Jews emigrated to Israel last year amid concerns for their safety and the economy.
“The entire world is under attack” from radical Islam, Netanyahu said, citing attacks in cities from Madrid to Mumbai. He said these aren’t isolated incidents but part of a “network of hatred” by radical groups.
The U.S. was represented at the Paris rally by Ambassador Jane Hartley. At an international conference in India, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world stood with the people of France “not just in anger and in outrage, but in solidarity and commitment to the cause of confronting extremism and in the cause that extremists fear so much and that has always united our countries: freedom.”
About the Author
