Leaders reject claim of ties to Mideast conflict

JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian officials on Wednesday rejected attempts of a shooting suspect to link killings at a Jewish school in France to the Mideast conflict.

A suspect in Monday’s attack, while holed up in a house Wednesday surrounded by police in Toulouse, told French negotiators he was part of an al-qaida-affiliated group seeking to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children.

The shooting attack killed three Jewish children and a rabbi. All four were buried Wednesday at an emotional ceremony in Israel that drew thousands of mourners.

Police suspect the assailant was also responsible for killing an off-duty French paratrooper in Toulouse on March 11 and two uniformed paratroopers in the town of Montauban last Thursday. The slain soldiers were all of north African origin and believed to be Muslim.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned Monday’s attack on the Jewish school and dismissed the suspect’s attempt to link the crime to the cause of Palestinian statehood.

“It is time for those criminals to stop exploiting the name of Palestine through their terrorist actions or claim victory to the rights of Palestinian children, who only seek a decent life for themselves and all children of the world,” Fayyad said.

At a cemetery service on the slopes of western Jerusalem, Israel Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said there was no defence for killing children.

“Those seeking justification for this hatred shall find none,” he said before an audience that included many of the victims’ relatives. “There never was, nor will there be, reason for acts of terror against Jews anywhere.”

Before a meeting with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, who accompanied the bodies to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the world to fight antiSemitism and terrorism.

“We must fight this extraordinary propaganda against Israelis and Jews everywhere, against innocents, which leads these people to perpetrate such barbaric acts,” he said.