Merah case: ten years later, the tribute to the victims of barbarism in Toulouse
Ten years after the terrorist attacks in Toulouse and Montauban which killed seven people, including Jewish children, President Macron and his rejected counterpart, Isaac Herzog, pay tribute to the victims of blind barbarism, this Sunday, March 20. Commemorations under the sign of a reminder to also reaffirm the values of the Republic.
Light against obscurantism. Life stronger than death. Ten years after the terrorist attacks which bloodied Toulouse and rocked the whole world into the horror of these unprecedented attacks on French soil, heads of state and committed intellectuals remember, this Sunday, March 20, in the Pink City, their sacred attachment to the values of peace and humanity. A message that is all the stronger in these troubled times when the war in Ukraine against a background of exacerbated nationalism is raging on our doorstep.
On the initiative of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) Midi-Pyrénées, President Macron and his rejected counterpart, Isaac Herzog, thus mark their fierce desire to fight against terrorism and anti-Semitism in a common spirit, attached to the values of the Republic and secularism. It is this message that they also intend to remind by being, from 3 p.m., this Sunday afternoon, within the Jewish school Ohr Torah (ex-school Ozar Hatorah), martyrdom enclosure where fell under the bullets of the terrorist Mohammed Merah, Professor Jonathan Sandler, 30, his two children, Gabriel, 3, Arié, 6, and little Myriam Monsonego, 8, daughter of the school director.
Three French presidents
A killing perpetrated in the name of religious fanaticism, a few days after the execution, in Toulouse and Montauban, of three soldiers symbolizing the French State, Imad Ibn Ziaten, Abel Chennouf and Mohamed Legouad, and liable to irreversible injuries to a fourth soldier , Loïc Liber, now quadriplegic. Seven victims murdered cowardly and who all had in common, this freedom slung over their shoulders, this fierce desire to live and serve their country.
The two Heads of State are accompanied by their respective delegations, made up of around thirty people and their wives. The former Presidents of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, who had both already visited this school on March 19, 2012 on the day of the attack, are also expected for the start of this official visit. The former Prime Ministers, Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve and Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, also take part in these major commemorations.
Reflection
A time of meditation marked by the laying of a wreath at the foot of the tree of life is already scheduled in this denominational school. Emmanuel Macron, Isaac Herzog and the two former Presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, were to speak for long minutes, in private, with Yaacov Monsonégo, director of the Ohr Torah school and father of Myriam shot dead by the scooter killer. Her school, through the 200 children attending school and her values of fraternity that she has been transmitting for years and despite the eruption of a furious barbarity that sowed death for 40 seconds, remains an immutable point of reference for the unfailing attachment.
The official processions are then expected at the Halle aux Grains, place Dupuy, in the middle of the afternoon where debates around secularism bringing together intellectuals such as Marek Halter, Bernard Henri-Lévy, Rachel Kahn and Caroline Fourest, should constitute the ‘ one of the highlights of this commemoration. This day of remembrance will end with the premiere of a play by the French director, Steve Suissa, on the extraordinary life of the Jewish swimmer from Toulouse Alfred Nakache, deported and survivor of the death camps. A lesson in courage and resilience so that the seven candles of the innocent victims of terrorism and fanaticism will shine forever.
Isaac Herzog, first visit to France
Fine politician, skillful diplomat, Isaac Herzog, 61, elected in June 2021 President of the State of Israel by a large majority in the Knesset, comes to Toulouse this Sunday to pay tribute to the Jewish victims of Mohammed Merah, March 19 2012, at Ozar Hatorah School. He will be accompanied by his wife and around thirty members of his delegation. It is also his first official room in France as head of state.
“He did not hesitate to come and it happened very naturally,” says Franck Touboul, president of the representative council of Jewish institutions in France Midi-Pyrénées.
If in France the notoriety of Isaac Herzog remains relative because of his recent election, this former leader of the Labor Party (center left program) and opponent of Benyamin Netanyahu, is on the other hand much more popular in his country where he scraps in politics For more than 20 years. Isaac Herzog is in line with the founding fathers of Israel, according to an old democratic tradition. His father, Chaim Herzog, had himself served as head of state for 10 years, from 1983 to 1993.
In Israel, “Bouji”, as he is nicknamed in his country, the father of three children, is also perceived as the “son of the establishment”, endowed with diplomatic experience which makes him the worthy representative of a State whose voice counts in the international concert of nations. He finally went, for the first time, to the United Arab Emirates to continue the normalization process initiated with the Gulf countries. A historical visit.
A former lawyer who studied his law in New York, Isaac Herzog has always presented himself as a “secular and liberal Zionist”, heir to an Israeli dynasty, a bit like the Kennedys.
He will continue his visit to France and Paris as part of an extensive world tour he has undertaken since his election in June 2021.