Administration Statements Referring to the Anti-Semitic Attack on the Kosher Supermarket in Paris

NJDC — February 13, 2015 – 1:18 pm | Barack Obama | Secretary of State Comments (0) Add a comment

1) From the President’s Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau:

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris serve as a painful reminder of our obligation to condemn and combat rising anti-Semitism in all its forms, including the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust.

2) From the Vice President’s Statement on the same anniversary:

Recent violent attacks against Jews in France and elsewhere in Europe make unmistakably clear that the scourge of anti-Semitism persists and must be confronted.

3) From the President’s Statement on the UN General Assembly Meeting on the Rise of Anti-Semitism:

Anti-Semitic attacks like the recent terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris pose a threat that extends beyond the Jewish community.

4) From Ambassador Samantha Power in her remarks at the UN General Assembly Meeting on the Rise of Anti-Semitism:

As you all know, Jews were not the only targets in the Paris attacks; the violent extremists who launched coordinated attacks that week also went after satirical journalists and police. Nor were they they only victims. The families of those killed are victims as well. Thousands of children attending France’s 717 Jewish schools - little kids who now have to walk to class through phalanxes of heavily armed soldiers - are also victims. So too are Jewish worshippers who congregate in synagogues that increasingly feel like fortresses, with blast walls and foot patrols outside. Any Jew in France, in Europe, or anywhere in the world, who fears putting on a kippah before walking out in public, or thinks twice about shopping in a kosher market, or putting a mezuzah outside their door, or living in a Jewish neighborhood, for fear of being attacked - he or she is also a victim.

5) From White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in his remarks at A Gathering of Solidarity and Remembrance with the People of France and Its Jewish Community:

The violent assault on the Jewish community in France that took place on Friday afternoon - as the Jewish community in Paris was in the final hours of preparing for the restfulness and peace of the Sabbath - was the latest in a series of troubling incidents in Europe and around the world that reflect a rising tide of anti-Semitism.

6) From State Department Spokesman Jen Psaki in her briefing on Thursday, February 12, 2015:

...I would just reiterate that both Josh Earnest and I tweeted and came out and made clear what our position is on the targeted anti-Semitic attack in Paris.

7) Jen Psaki’s Tweet on Tuesday, February 11, 2015:

We have always been clear that the attack on the kosher grocery store was an anti-Semitic attack that took the lives of innocent people.

8) Josh Earnest’s Tweet on Tuesday, February 11, 2015:

Our view has not changed. Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism. POTUS didn’t intend to suggest otherwise.

9) Josh Earnest’s Press briefing on Tuesday, February 11, 2015, which was incorrectly transcribed by an unofficial transcription:

Q: Well, back to the question Jim was asking about - his description of the shooting at the Kosher deli in Paris as being a bunch of - randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris - I mean, this was not a random shooting of a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris. This was an attack on a Kosher deli. Does the President have any doubt that those terrorists attacked that deli because there would be Jews in that deli?

MR. EARNEST: Well, Jon, it is clear from the terrorists and some of the writings that they put out afterwards what their motivation was. The adverb that the President chose was used to indicate that the individuals who were killed in that terrible, tragic incident were killed not because of who they were but because of where they randomly happened to be.

Q: They weren’t killed because they were in a Jewish deli, though? They were in a Kosher deli.

MR. EARNEST: Jon, these individuals were not targeted by name. This is the point.

Q: Not by name, but by religion - were they not?

MR. EARNEST: Well, Jon, there were people other than just Jews who were in that deli.

Q. Does he have any doubt that the deli was attacked because it was a Kosher deli? This is not any random deli. This was a Kosher deli.

MR. EARNEST: No, Jon. No, Jon. I answered the question once. No.

10) Not specifically about Paris, but the President mentioned anti-Semitism in the State of the Union Address:

As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I’ve prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of technology like drones is properly constrained. It’s why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world.

11) Also not specifically about Paris, but the President also mentioned anti-Semitism in his 2015 Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast:

We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.

 

 

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