Netanyahu, Hollande remember Toulouse shooting victims

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Francois Hollande Thursday held a highly emotional memorial at a Jewish school in southwestern France for three children and a rabbi killed by an Islamist gunman. The service at the Ohr Torah school drew pupils and their parents, France's chief rabbi Gilles Bernheim and Eva Sandler, whose Franco-Israeli husband Jonathan and their two children were gunned down in March by Al-Qaeda inspired killer Mohamed Merah on March 19. Merah's shooting spree in and around the southwestern city of Toulouse claimed the lives of three French paratroopers before he was killed in a police siege, prompting France's terror alert system to be raised to the highest level in the region. Sandler's widow was due to address the gathering. Netanyahu looked sombre as the ceremony began with an address by Arie Bensemoun, a local head of France's main Jewish association. "This is a very specific ceremony which is very rich in emotion....rich in fraternity and rich in appeasement," he said. School principal Yaacov Monsenego, who lost his eight-year-old daughter Miriam in the attack, broke down as he addressed the gathering. "My life as a husband, as a father as the principal of a school is turned upside down," he said. "The attack plunged us into darkness," he said, expressing thanks and gratitude to the "thousands of well-wishers who comforted us." Last week French police unveiled a damning report that exposed several holes in an investigation of the Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman before his shooting spree. Hollande and Netanyahu's joint visit sent "a very strong message of unity against this menace which threatens all humanity," said Nicole Yardeni, president of the Council of French Jewish Institutions in the Midi-Pyrenees region. There was tight security at the venue with one police officer saying, "Netanyahu is one of the world's most protected figures along with the Pope and the president of the United States." France is home to between 350,000 and 500,000 Jews, according to estimates. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, more than 90,000 French Jews have settled there. After the ceremony, Netanyahu is due to meet members of Toulouse's Jewish community. The city is home to an estimated 200,000 Jews. On Wednesday, the two leaders discussed Middle East peace and Iran's nuclear ambitions in their first face-to-face meeting, which one top Israeli official said "went off very well." Since taking office five months ago, Hollande has only spoken to Netanyahu by telephone but met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas twice. The Israeli leader enjoyed close ties with Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy but there was a chill after Sarkozy reportedly called Netanyahu a "liar" during a private conversation with US President Barack Obama. After that meeting, Hollande recognised that anti-Semitism existed in France and vowed to "eradicate" the problem. On Wednesday demonstrators in France held pro and anti-Netanyahu rallies. In Paris, about 200 people gathered in front of the city's main opera house shouting anti-Netanyahu slogans and protesting at Israeli occupation but a similar number gathered at the Champs-Elysees shouting "Israel will live, Israel will win." In Toulouse, on the eve of Netanyahu's visit, about 100 left-wing activists waving Palestinian flags protested against Israeli policies. No such protests are expected on Thursday, so as not to disrupt the memorial ceremony.