Itongadol.- The European Jewish Congress (EJC) is calling on French authorities to condemn a decision by a French Mayor to grant Majdi al-Rimawi, responsible for the 2001 murder of Israeli Minister Rechavam Zeevi, "honorary citizenship" in Bezons, a suburb of Paris.
The Mayor of the city of Bezons, Dominique Lesparre, made a speech at a commemorative ceremony in which he justified the acts of the terrorist convicted of murder, calling him a "victim,” and "political prisoner."
“This is an outrageous and horrific decision, not just to honor a murderer, but the murderer of an Israeli government cabinet minister,” EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor said.
“It is inconceivable that an elected figure can be so ignorant to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim,” said Kantor in a statement.
He continued, "This is the kind of ignorance which leads to people like Mohammed Merah perpetrating the murder of children because they are Jewish. This type of glorification of murder is sending a very ominous message to the next Merah.”
“After the murders in Toulouse we expected that it would have sent shock waves across France and would compel to finding ways of dealing with this threat,” Kantor added.
“Unfortunately, the response was not felt strongly enough by those who attack Jews and other minorities. They have not received the message that these attacks are unacceptable and will be met with zero-tolerance.”
Kantor insisted that "life goes on in Europe after such events as the Toulouse murders, but for the Jewish community life does not return to normal."
He stated that this honor for terror "dishonors Bezons and shames its mayor.”
The EJC statement came after the suburb of Paris made the killer of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze’evi an honorary resident.
Bezons awarded the title last month to Majdi Al-Rimawi, according to the March edition of its official newsletter, Bezons Infos. The motion to recognize Rimawi passed unanimously at a special council vote of the municipality, which is northwest of Paris and nearly eight miles from the city\’s center.
“He is imprisoned for more than 10 years in an Israeli prison. His crime? Defending his city and its inhabitants, calling for the application of international law for the establishment of Palestine in the 1967 borders as recognized by the United Nations and Jerusalem as its capital. For this he was sentenced in 2002 [sic] to life in prison… More than 80 years!” proclaims the newsletter article.
The article does not mention the 2008 conviction of Rimawi, a member of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for the murder of Ze’evi in Jerusalem in 2001. Rimawi was one of four shooters who waited for Ze’evi, Israel\’s minister of tourism, outside a hotel in Jerusalem.
Bezons Mayor Dominique Lesparre was quoted as calling the vote to honor Rimawi “a strong political act.”
The inscription on the plaque prepared by Bezons, which has a population of approximately 28,000, referred to Al-Rimawi as a "political prisoner," according to Palestinian Media Watch.
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