10 years later, Emmanuel Macron’s speech “repairs a memorial injustice”, says Elie Korchia
The speech that Emmanuel Macron gave on Sunday during the commemoration ceremony organized in Toulouse 10 years after the attacks in Toulouse and Montauban “repairing a memorial injustice“, estimates Elie Korchia, president of the Consistory of France, the representative institution of Judaism, Monday March 21 on franceinfo. He salutes “a combative speech” from the Head of State and candidate for re-election. The attacks committed between March 11 and March 19, 2012 by Mohamed Merah killed seven people, including Jewish children.
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franceinfo: What do you remember from Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Sunday in Toulouse?
Elijah Korchia: It was a combative speech. Indeed, I think it was an important speech that took place yesterday. Ten years after the attacks which had not led to a collective awareness of the Nation, I think that ten years later yesterday in Toulouse, it was a very important speech that we were waiting for and which was delivered with force and vigor by the President of the Republic. Indeed, it was an important moment of national unity. And this speech, for me, marks a level, I hope, positive in the fight against anti-Semitism and against the rejection of the other, since what happened ten years ago is both the rejection of what carries the values of our country, that is to say the soldiers who defended our freedom and then children and a dad in a schoolyard who discovers the fraternity that we wanted to bring down, by killing Jews.
Did we catch up yesterday, in a way, with what had not been done enough ten years ago? In 2012, the reaction of public opinion had not been at the same level, for example, as in 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo and November 13 killings?
Exactly, that’s what I pleaded in the trial of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, and in Montrouge a year and a half ago.
“I said at that time that in 2012 France did not end with what ended. And indeed, the attacks of March 2012, first of all, is the year zero of terrorism that will kill in France.”
Elie Korchia, President of the Consistory of Franceat franceinfo
And we were not aware that the victims of March 2012 had remained too long in the blind spot of our collective conscience. So, I believe that Emmanuel Macron’s Toulouse speech represents a very strong moment for our country, that is to say that it repairs a memorial injustice.
Emmanuel Macron evokes a multifaceted anti-Semitism today in France. For you, what form does it take today?
First of all, it is an anti-Semitism which remains important because it is traditionally supported by the extreme right in our country. We have known this very well for a long time, but it has unfortunately been joined in recent decades by the far left and the President of the Republic, in a very clear speech yesterday, also recalled that for twenty years, this anti-Semitism is very much mixed with anti-Zionism. And it was no coincidence, moreover, that yesterday, at the invitation of the President of the Republic, the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, was present yesterday for this moving ceremony.