The European Jewish Parliament (EJP) and the European Jewish Union (EJU) announced Friday the launch of a campaign calling for European Union policy chief Catherine Ashton "to apologize or resign."
The call came after Ashton's comments on Monday on the brutal killing of four Jews, including three children, at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, France.
"In her comments, Lady Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy drew a despicable moral equivalence between events in Toulouse, Syria and Gaza," the Jewish organizations said in a statement.
"The European Jewish Parliament and the European Jewish Union strongly condemns the comparison between the crimes of a cold-blooded anti-Semite murderer and a dictator who slaughters his own people or with the inevitable and regrettable civilian collateral damages resulting from a war opposing the Israeli democracy to terrorist organizations wholly dedicated to the eradication of the Jewish State," the statement added.
"What Ashton said is an insult to the memory of the victims and could indirectly be interpreted by someone as a justification to kill Jews in Europe," declared Tomer Orni, CEO of the the European Jewish Union, a body promoting Jewish values in Europe. "She should apologize or step down immediately".
Joel Rubinfeld, Co-Chairman of the European Jewish Parliament, an assembly of 120 elected members in 50 countries across Europe, called Ashton’s comparison "outrageous".
"It is a political mistake and a moral fault to compare a cold-blooded killer who shot a bullet in the head of the 7 year old Jewish girl in Toulouse and Tsahal, the Israeli army, which defends the Israeli citizens targeted by the Palestinian terrorists whom, on their side, do not hesitate to use their own children as human shields," Rubinfeld stressed.
"All Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, communities and individuals are invited to join the campaign and sign a petition calling Lady Ashton to apologise or resign," the statement said.