It was past nine at night barcelona. Avenir street where the headquarters is located Israel Community of Barcelona (CIB)On Tuesday there were two Guàrdia Urbana cars at one end and a Mossos d’Esquadra van at the other. Everyone who crossed the police cordon had to answer the same question. “Excuse me, where are you going?” After passing the first control, it was time to face the second control organized by the Jewish community at the Synagogue gates. “Do you have any weapon Or did someone ask you to bring something?” security precautions They were excessive, but the citizens gathered there assured them that they were more than enough. “Have fear“There is antisemitism in the air, especially for our sons and daughters,” Sara Hasson told the Prensa Ibérica Group’s EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA after the recent ceremony.
There was a kind of tension, a sense of expectation among the participants on the street. “There are a lot of guards here and it calms us down, but then we have to go home, go to work, go to university… And we are alone there. Innocent Jews have incurred the wrath of people before who wanted to get attention.” take extreme measures” added Ariel, reminding Attacks on Jews in France and Egypt other times when tensions escalate. This man attended the ceremony with his daughter Melanie, who just started university this year. Worried about her daughter, she said, “I asked her to listen to everything that is said in the classroom and in the corridors these days, but please do not interfere.” “We are normal people,” he concluded. Ironically, and probably partly as a self-persuasion mechanism, many of the participants wore stickers saying “I am not afraid” and an Israeli flag on the lapels of their jackets or on the front of their T-shirts.
At CIB, too, events for young people were canceled in the coming weeks, and it was already visible this Tuesday that security measures were strengthened by the institutions and institutions themselves, both at the headquarters of the association and at the Hatikva school. . Ariel’s feelings were also perceived by other participants. Many people refused to speak when they saw the press accreditation. insecurity, others for fear of being recognized. “When I open Instagram and see the stories of the people I follow legitimizing terrorism, I feel so useless. Hamas. “It makes my blood boil,” said one young girl, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, adding: “Everyone knows someone who has lost someone or knows someone who is missing.” This is the case with Moisés. He is president of the Ismael Isaac Peace Foundation in Barcelona and has been working with his nephew since this weekend. in unknown location.
“Helpless situation”
“He was a soldier, but he was on holiday. At that happy peace party where terrorists broke in and kidnapped the participants,” he said in shock. “We trust in God and that He is good (…). There are many here suffering from this desperate situation,” he added. At the ceremony, a minute of silence was held for those who lost their lives and missing people and prayers were read.
“The Israeli people were shaped by a difficult history in which adversities were continually overcome,” said CIB president Raymond Forado. In his speech, where he called for political action, he said, “We will continue to live and walk the streets of Barcelona, but with a broken spirit, until there is not a single hostage left in the hands of terrorists.” For “a step forward” from the authorities. “When there was Rambla attackTel Aviv showed solidarity with Barcelona, we felt its embrace. “We continue to discuss on social networks whether we will support the Israeli people from now on,” said Forado, adding, “I believe in miracles, but I want to wake up from this nightmare.”
“Since the beginning of its existence, Israel has fought for the right to life, to be a free people in the land of the ancestors of the prophets,” said Yosef David Sánchez-Molina, honorary consul of the State of Israel in Barcelona. “Israel is sacred. Its land is sacred. Enemies will not be able to create fear in our hearts,” he emphasized.