As in New York, Lisbon, or Buenos Aires, the faces of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Israel are appearing on the walls of Paris, a temporary way to “raise public awareness”.
Fifteen days after the bloody attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group, a meeting is scheduled for Sunday at 10pm in a location in the west of the capital.
“It remains important to alert public opinion, it is a cry for help,” argues Léa Hanoune, treasurer of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) who coordinates the action: one hundred participants, 30 cars, 4,000 posters, a significant and organized security service.
After the surroundings of the University of Tolbiac in Paris the previous week, where “we found it important to voice our cry because there had been anti-Semitic messages”, the target of the day is the sixteenth and seventeenth districts.
“The objective is to raise awareness among the general public, to give a face to the hostages, to make them alive. It’s not about saying it’s Israel against Palestine, but that there are hostages, and that it could be your father, your mother, your daughter,” adds Sophie Kijner, 31 years old, member of the October 7th collective.
Created in response to the unprecedented attacks since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, this group claims to be “apolitical and a fervent defender of republican values and freedom”.
Around them, water and glue are mixed in 15-liter buckets. Students are joined by other activists, people of all ages, young professionals driven by “a sense of duty”, and this former member of the French Jewish Scouts, with 2,500 posters in hand.
On each poster, these red background inscriptions: “kidnapped” and “Participate, they must come back alive”. On each one as well, a name, a first name, a nationality.
Juvenile smiles, graying hair, a young boy posing with a dog, all kidnapped from their homes or in the middle of a rave party when hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel aboard vehicles, by sea and air, under a barrage of rockets.
They are Israelis, Americans, Argentines, or even French, “between 200 and 250”, according to Hamas, which claims that 22 were killed in Israeli bombings.
“As a Jew, these are people who are part of my family, people we want to see come back in good health,” testifies Raphaël, a 24-year-old computer scientist.
“Sad and worried”
The collage campaign in France, which has the largest Jewish community in Europe with around 500,000 people, aims to be “the relay” of the one initiated by a small group of Israeli artists temporarily based in New York, explained Aurélie Assouline, a member of the Republicans from the seventeenth district, and co-founder of the October 7th collective, in a phone call with AFP on Saturday.
More than 1,400 people were killed that day, mostly civilians shot dead, burned alive, or mutilated in the Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Witnessing the carnage from afar, this group wanted to contribute. These posters were then created.
On Sunday, in their French version, they are plastered near a train station and parks, on bus shelters or elegant facades of Haussmannian buildings between two embassies.
Sarah Ouakil’s team, vice president of the UEJF, is busy near the Trocadéro, emptied at this late hour of the usual tourists. “We are sad and worried,” she says between brushstrokes.
Among the posters, slogans say that “defending the Palestinians” is “condemning Hamas”.
“The Palestinians are also under the yoke of Hamas. We will not achieve a peace solution if a terrorist group controls this territory”, says the young woman, before moving on to another spot.
