Contributed by CAMERA Boston intern, Chaiel Schaffel of Maimonides School
| We at the CAMERA on Campus offices were deeply saddened to learn of the recent terror attack in Paris yesterday. News of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine building shattered the stateside early morning calm , bringing with it a feeling of melancholy only matched by the bitter Boston air.
Charlie Hebdo is a french satire magazine noted for its irreverent takes on world politics, religion, and current events. It was at the center of a controversy in 2011 surrounding a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, in which the magazine’s offices were firebombed. Charlie Hebdo was placed under assault again today, when two terrorists opened fire at a weekly board meeting, killing ten Hebdo staff members and two police officers. Many in the French political sphere, and indeed, the Western world, consider the attacks to be an assault on the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press. In a statement to the French people, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman reported that “Israel sympathises with France’s pain,” and that “The world must not allow terrorists to intimidate the free world and the West is obligated to stand united and determined against this threat,” according to the Times of Israel. Our deepest condolences are with the French people in this difficult time, and this attack only underscores the scourge of terrorism that Israel and other western nations come to terms with, and face. |