Statement following the terrorist attack on the 7th of October

Today, at a Prayer for Peace organized by Shalom, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, at the central synagogue in Sofia, we expressed our sorrow for the innocent children, parents, and peaceful residents of Israel who were brutally and publicly murdered in the unprovoked terrorist attack on October 7.

We mourn not only for the lives taken, but also for the deeply sown seeds of hatred from which only more violence and death follow. We also mourn for the peaceful victims of the ensuing war in Gaza, whose population Hamas has held hostage to its interests for years and is using as human shields today.

Nothing can justify the deliberate taking of innocent lives and the brutal violation of human dignity. The Islamic fundamentalism of Hamas contains everything that the GLAS Foundation has opposed in its work as a co-organiser of Sofia Pride and all other initiatives and campaigns in defence of human rights and freedom for LGBTI people.

We believe in liberal values, democracy and the right to individual freedom and expression, and although these are now completely impossible in Gaza, we hope for a day when these values are more important than hate.

The extreme cruelty displayed in the Hamas attack and its dissemination on the Internet are intended to create inter-ethnic and religious hatred. We are familiar with this. Creating conditions of intolerance and pitting one community against another is actively used as a ploy by opponents of equality and LGBTI rights in Bulgaria. We hope that sanity and love will prevail.