Netanyahu to French Jews after attacks: 'Israel is your home',

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a special cabinet

meeting at his office on Sept. 23, 2014 (AFP/File Gali Tibbon)

Netanyahu to French Jews after attacks: 'Israel is your home', he means Palestine of course

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French Jews Saturday, after 17 people were killed there during three days of attacks, that Israel is their home.

"To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home," he said in a televised statement, referring to the Jewish practice of facing Jerusalem during prayer.

"Unless the world comes to its senses, terror will continue to strike in other places," he added in remarks on his official Twitter account.

Four of the fatalities occurred during an attack on a Jewish supermarket.

Media said he had ordered a ministerial committee to convene next week to discuss ways to encourage immigration of French and other European Jews to Israel.

They said Netanyahu had considered attending Sunday's mass rally in Paris but was obliged to drop the idea due to security concerns.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will represent Israel instead.

Lieberman met Saturday evening with Israeli ministry and security officials to discuss repercussions of the attacks.

"The meeting discussed strengthening ties with the heads of the Jewish community in France and the security of the various institutions of the Jewish community there," ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement.

More than three million Jews have immigrated to Israel since its creation in 1948 -- including one million from former Soviet states since 1990 -- under the Law of Return, which offers citizenship and benefits to Jews from anywhere in the world.

However, millions of Palestinians in exile -- those whose descendants were among the 750,000 who fled or were driven from their homes during the war that led to Israel's creation in 1948 -- are barred from returning to their land in what is now Israel.

Ma'an staff contributed to this report.

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