Paris attack victims buried in Israel

Four French Jews killed in the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris were buried in Jerusalem before thousands of French and Israeli mourners, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying they had been returned to their “true home”.

In an emotional ceremony at a hillside cemetery amid tight security, Netanyahu denounced the “terrorism of extremist Islam” behind Friday’s assault on the grocery and the deadly shootings on Wednesday at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly.

Netanyahu, who joined world leaders for a rally of over a million people in Paris on Sunday, said Jews around the world were always welcome to migrate to Israel.

“Our president was right in saying that Jews have the right to live in many countries,” Netanyahu said, delivering his homily in Hebrew after Israeli president Reuven Rivlin had spoken.

“Today, more than ever, Israel is the true home of all of us, and the greater our number and the more united we are in our land, the stronger we will be in our one and only country and that is the hope of the entire Jewish people,” he said.

Despite many of the mourners having travelled from France and not speaking Hebrew, none of the Israeli politicians who delivered addresses at the ceremony used any French.

Friends of Yohan Cohen, 20, who was shot dead by hostage-taker Amedy Coulibaly, said he would have wanted to be buried in Israel even if he always regarded France as his home.

“We know that there’s a day when we must ultimately come to Israel,” said Michael Sitruk, 19, who like several others wore a white T-shirt bearing Cohen’s picture.

Asked if he had any plans to move to Israel, he said it felt inevitable, given a steady increase in anti-Semitic attacks.