Australian Jews shocked at Brussels murder

COMMUNITY leaders in Australia have expressed their horror and distress over Saturday’s shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium, which left four people dead.

An Israeli couple on vacation, Emanuel and Miriam Riva, as well as a French volunteer, Dominique Sabrier, were killed when a man entered the museum, pulled a rifle out of a bag and fired shots at people inside, before fleeing the scene.

A fourth victim, an employee of the museum, Alexandre Strens, died later in hospital.

As the hunt for the killer and a suspected accomplice continued, approximately 2000 people gathered on Sunday outside the museum for a silent vigil in memory of the dead.

Joining a global chorus of condemnation, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Robert Goot said “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the shooting.

“The Australian Jewish community shares the sorrow, grief and anger caused by this heinous crime and we pray for the strength of the mourners and the souls of the murdered.”

He added, “This atrocity is not an isolated incident. It comes just weeks after a gunman murdered three people at a Jewish community centre in Kansas and evokes memories of the barbaric murders of three children and a rabbi at a day school in Toulouse in March 2012.

“We must understand that such incidents are not spontaneous and do not occur in a vacuum. They are the culmination of a pervasive culture of incitement and hatred towards the Jewish people and Israel, the State of the Jewish people.”

The sentiment was echoed by chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Dr Dvir Abramovich who said: “This heartbreaking tragedy, two years after the murderous atrocities of Toulouse and Montauban, reminds us once again that anti-Semitism and violence against Jews in Europe are on the rise and have reached frighteningly high levels.”

Dr Danny Lamm, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia also rued the rising tide of anti-Semitism, stating “Attacks such as this one, and a knife attack on three Jews in Paris over the weekend, are unfortunately becoming more common”.

Calling on the international community “to stand up and condemn these hate crimes in the strongest of terms,” he added: “We have already witnessed before how the smallest seeds of hatred grew into the largest of atrocities. We cannot allow the darkness to prevail.”

Describing the attack as “shocking”, Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council director of international and community affairs Jeremy Jones said, “It was additionally distressing to hear that many Belgian, and Western European, Jews were not surprised that it took place, against the backdrop of anti-Jewish rhetoric and incitement from a number of sources, including far right, extreme left and radical Islamist groups.”

Zionist Council of Victoria president Sam Tatarka said the attack was “a reminder that the Australian Jewish community is not immune to such threats,” adding, “Our schools, synagogues and institutions have been carrying the burden of heightened security measures for many years now and we have sadly had to become used to passing by security cordons and high walls as we go about our daily business”.

NSW State Zionist Council president Richard Balkin said the attack was “yet another result of the relentless hatred and never-ending incitement which promotes this terror,” adding, “The anti-Semitism we witness today is often cloaked in the guise of anti-Israel activity – as embodied nowadays by the BDS movement and calls for other boycotts of the State of Israel and its people – but in the end, the result, as we see today, remains the same. Jews everywhere, not just in Israel, are the targets of this hatred.”

Full coverage in this week’s AJN.

AJN STAFF

Candles are lit outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels.

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