Jews should not be "forced by
fear" to emigrate, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish
Communities, Renzo Gattegna, said Monday in the wake of a new
call by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on European Jews to
move to Israel following two deadly attacks in Copenhagen.
"Staying or leaving should be a free choice" for Jews, a
right "as for all other citizens", Gattegna told State
television Rainews24.
Italian Jews have lived in the country "for 2,200 years"
and intend to remain a part of Italy, he also said.
A Danish jihadi on Sunday murdered two people in separate
attacks in Copenhagen.
The victims are film director Finn Norgaard, who was
attending a free-speech debate, and Dan Uzan, 37, a long-time
member of the local Jewish community who was shot dead while on
security duty outside the synagogue as some 80 people inside
were celebrating a girl's bat mitzvah, a coming-of-age religious
ceremony.
Danish investigators believe the suspected gunman -
identified as Omar El-Hussein, 22, who was shot dead by police -
could have been inspired by attacks in Paris last month on the
Charlie Hebdo magazine, a Jewish kosher supermarket and a
policewoman that claimed 17 lives.
On Sunday, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu called on
European Jews to move to Israel.
"Israel is your home", he said in a statement.
"We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass
immigration from Europe", the premier added, repeating a call he
made following the Paris attacks in January, when four Jews were
among the victims.
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