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January 12, 2015 4:12 pm
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‘I Don’t Feel Safe in France,’ Says Bereaved Journalist Whose Cousin Was Murdered in Paris Kosher Supermarket Attack

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avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

Yohan Cohen was murdered by Amedy Coulibaly after he attempted to rescue a 3 year-old child during Friday's siege. Photo: Twitter

In an emotional interview about her cousin who was murdered during Friday’s terrorist siege at the HyperCacher market in Paris,  journalist Rachel Bourlier said on Monday that like many Jews in France, she does not feel safe.

“No, we are not safe. I don’t feel safe,” she told the London radio station LBC. “I am now in Paris and I said to my family, come to live in London…I love France, I love Paris, but for the first time in my life I wanted to go…I am not safe and I feel it for the first time in my life.”

Bourlier’s cousin, Yohan Cohen, 22, was one of the hostages who died on Friday in terrorist Amedy Coulibaly’s murderous attack upon the market where he worked. When Bourlier learned of the siege at the market, she called her family to check on her “little” cousin and ask if he went to work that day. Bourlier’s family then told her that he was among the hostages held up at the store.

“And all day on Friday we didn’t know if he was safe or not. And Friday night we knew that he was killed by the terrorist because he tried to save a little boy of 3 years old,” Bourlier told LBC, while fighting back tears. “He tried to take him [away] from the terrorist and they fought and the terrorist killed him.”

“I am devastated,” she added. “I didn’t know him very well because I live in London and he’s in Paris. We saw [each other] only for like weddings, bar mitzvahs and Jewish traditional events. But I saw him sometimes because when I went to buy kosher food at HyperCacher when I was in Paris he was always there, smiling. Everybody loved him…I was very sad about what happened to Charlie Hebdo and I could not imagine [that] I could be a few days after much more concerned personally for my family.”

Cohen and the other three victims of the supermarket attack – Yoav Hattab, 21, Philip Braham, 40, and Francois-Michel Saada – will be buried in Israel on Monday. All of them are understood to have been murdered by the terrorist Amedy Coulibaly soon after he entered the HyperCacher market, The Algemeiner previously reported.

Boulier said her family now has food delivered to their home because they are fearful of going to kosher restaurants or grocery stores in Paris. On Sunday she attended the major anti-terror rally in Paris with her aunt but admitted that she was reluctant to go out of fear. She told the radio station she is scared of being in the streets and also taking the subway.

“People are afraid to go in the restaurant because it’s kosher. They are afraid to go to walk in the city because we know there are Jews who live there and they can be killed. We don’t feel safe anymore,” she said. “The Jews are afraid in France. A person in our family was killed because he was Jewish. And that is reality.”

A total of 17 people were victims of Islamist terror in France this week: 10 journalists and two police officers murdered in the Charlie Hebdo assault on Wednesday, another police officer murdered by Coulibaly in Montrouge on Thursday, and the four Jewish victims at the HyperCacher market. Bourlier said the attacks have taught her not to take life for granted and to cherish every day.

“Life must be enjoyed every moment because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s not only 17 people who just been killed. So many people around have been touched.”

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