Dec. 1 (UPI) — The Women’s International Zionist Organization rallied at the Eiffel Tower in Paris Friday, holding placards of hostages still held in Gaza as Israel resumed its military assaults on Hamas.
WIZO is an international organization of Zionist women founded in Israel, and organizers say it is one of the largest women’s network globally.
According to the group’s website, it has 250,000 members and was founded “in direct response to the needs of women and children in Israel.”
Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza has had a real effect on France since its beginning. Soon after the initial October attack by Hamas, France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna told French news media that 11 citizens had been killed in the attack.
Later, more than 180,000 people throughout the nation marched in a peaceful demonstration against rising anti-Semitism in France and worldwide. In Paris, some 100,000 people took part.
More recently, French nationals were included in rounds of hostage releases during the temporary truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, is a political movement holding core beliefs that all Jews worldwide constitute one nation and that Jews should populate a part of Palestine. It is what helped create the modern state of Israel in 1948.
