exclusively a french problem, it faces countries all over europe and further afield. >> it just seems to the march has begun. it is moving slowly, i understand because the crowds are dense. it is loud, but i'm going to keep this going with you. tell us what we expect to see then over the next couple of hours. >> yes you're right, there is a little bit of movement, although it could just be people squeezing down into the square to let more people get in. i could also get helicopters flying overhead, that's part of the security arrangements there. also they could be coming into position to lead the march. the march is heading from place de la republique towards another major square in the east of the

capitol, still central paris towards the east. this is a very familiar route that marchers take, whether their demonstrations are for political purposes or trade unions demanding period rights for workers or better wages this is a very well-trodden path. that here they are at the moment honoring the dead, expressing solidarity and to a larger extent, the violence in the face of the threat and people have been gathering here several times in recent days. this is very much a natural place for the demonstrations to begin and within the next few moments, the next 10-15 minutes we can expect people to move out of the square and be very much on the route of the march where

we understand more than 2,000 police officers and military officers will be along the route, and additional more than 3,000 are involved in security preparations across the city as a whole and as well, snipers on the rooftops could be surveying the march. protection will be around the politicians and all those foreign leaders taking part. >> ok, we'll cross over to tim friend to find out exactly how that marsh is going on. we can see the world leaders president hollande as well as several others who have been walking and taking part in the march so far. >> yes, they are at the head of

the march. also this is about people, as well it's about families who have experienced what is being aimed at paris this week. you are here with your wife, young son. >> and my younger daughter. >> you've all come. that what is the message you're trying to deliver? >> the message i want to express here is that we all have to be here. france is about to be divided by some bad things that happened two days ago and i'm very, very sad and i want to tell everybody that we ever to love each other. we all are different but we don't have to look at our difference. we have to look at our

brotherhood, we don't have to fight to -- he. >> it's very differ and i know this as someone who has got a family when you ever a young san and all these images on the television, it's difficult for them to avoid that. it's hard to reassure them. >> yes, exactly. that when we look at television, my younger son was very afraid, because he thought it was a war. >> he thought it was war. >> well, yes. he thought that the war was outside, so i wanted to bring him here to show him a peaceful world and everybody's together to express. >> solidarity. >> exactly. >> everyone would appreciate what you're saying, but how do you achieve it? the march is one thing but how do people keep talk with each other so they don't become enemies?

>> we have to start to be suspicious. >> as to that. >> yes, we have to stop on that being suspicious. if you don't understand me, come and talk to me and i will tell you how i am, and not to be afraid. >> i'm sure everyone would agree with that. >> i love you. >> ok. >> whom ever you are i love you, and we love you. >> i'm going to let you get on to the march. that you've been hanging around a long time. i don't know whether we've got time but perhaps there's one more gentleman here we can talk to. >> i'm from 300 kilometers from france to paris. the messages is to divide religion from politics.

>> i'm going to let you get on with that, then. thanks for letting us know your views. >> well, some more voices from the crowd they'll be making their way now with the other tens of thousands hundreds of thousands are here today shaking their way through central paris and chanting, holding their banners aloft. that there you have it, the voices from the crowd they're nowhere near the world leaders. they probably won't see them at all on this march. they'll to have wait until they get back home and see them on the television, but it doesn't prevent them being very determined in their message. >> tim you mentioned the banners, which i want you to talk to us about in a second, but first let me tell our

viewers what we're looking at. that we're looking at the world leaders right now on the front line of the protest of that rally is the french president hollande. alongside him many political leaders have come to join him. there's angela merkel, there's david cameron israeli's prime benjamin netanyahu palestinian president mahmoud abbas. they are marching from place de la republique, uniting articles, showing a percentage of solidarity not only to france, it seems but to the whole of the international community. tim, talking about the placards, there have been so many that have been held up, but we've

seen a lot of them from we are charlie to others. talk to us about what all that means. >> they all mention liberty freedom, they all repeat the slogan that i might not agree with what you say but i defend your right to say it absolutely. of course, this is the reminder that they want to send to the world, that that right that is here in france to express one several freely, within the law of course, is a hard-won freedom. it was interesting, i was chatting earlier when we were on air to a young philosophy student, who said i hadn't

realized until this week how important that was. it's brought it home to me so graphicically. of course i've read about it in textbooks, but now it was being played out this political theory if you like, and remember this was a philosophy student speaking, but he said it's being played out in reality, and it's made me realize once again or perhaps for the first time, how important it all was. i think that sort of experience that young student was mentioning is probably being repeated across france, maybe across the world people have had this thought reestablished in their minds. you were asking about the banners. that they are all almost exclusively on that theme. there's hardly any mention of division here.

>> they've come from all over the in the. >> there were others, some interestingly, a muslim leader from london, who was here with a rabbi from london. they traveled overnight to be here. they were very interesting because they were also where the realities, they work daily in an area like in paris. i think they were trying to

address the surface after this march was over, after the great message of solidarity was being delivered one then have to get down to the details about how do you achieve the kind of things that this march is demanding and that is, you know, a better understanding between groups, but it shouldn't be too exaggerated that these differences exist. for the most part, everyone gets along. that was something people here want to say, as well. let's not exaggerate the divisions, because for the most part people do get along the vast majority do, as witnessed by this march. of course, division can be created by a relatively few number of people. >> which we saw has that that in

the wake of the attacks in france earlier this week. >> yes i think that's absolutely right. the attacks i think obviously shocked france, but one sensed that the people here had almost been anticipating, perhaps something of this nature, per has not to the extend that we witnessed this last week. >> it atlanta prevented them coming out in huge numbers despite france remaining on a high state of alert and at least one from the attacks is still on the run the partner, of course

of the gunman who took the hostages at the. >>ish supermarket. she may not still be in france itself she may have crossed into syria from turkey. that isn't confirmed but what the police are desperately doing at the moment of course is trying you to establish just how wide still trying to establish just how wide that network went, because priority number one is to prevent any further attacks. >> and seeing that hayet is still on the run tim has that given france, beside the sort of almost celebratory mood that we've seen over the past couple of hours at place de la republique is there still an underlying apprehension? >> i think there is, across

generations. that we were talking to the family who have come down to the north of the capital and the father with his son on his young shoulders was pointing out to his young son he he shot it was war. for young impressionable minds it probably was very, very frightening. he said the reason i brought him here today was to reassure him that it's not war what we have here is the vast majority of the people getting along in peace time. there is the very real possibility of their perhaps

being more violence. everyone hopes there won't be and perhaps that's now diminishing, but it would be foolish to suggest that that had completely gone away. >> we're looking at the live pictures now of the march that's been on the move with the world leaders, led by the french president hollande. one can assume he is now only thanking those in attendance that have come out to stand alongside him and his country in this show of unity and support him. before i let you go, tell us exactly what's going to happen over the next couple of minutes do you think with the march because the world leaders have been on the move. where do they head to, and do the people go along with them.

>> security is paramount as always. >> the huge crowd that's been behind us is slowly moving off here almost doing it inch by inch, because of course, there were so many of them and i suspect as is sometimes the case with these great big marchs, but by the time the front of the march has reached the destination, the back end of the march hasn't really left the departure point so some people never ever make the full route but i don't think they'll be too concerned about that, because it's the message that they want to make that's the important point. certainly they're moving off very very slowly here.

>> jacki is perched up on the place de la republique. tell us about the security arrangements you've seen on the ground.

>> the atmosphere in the crowd are such that the police are just keeping a watch on things, of course, and it's been peaceful. it's important to say that, but out of sight, there are snipers of course. they are on the roofs around us and along the routes. that would be inevitable with so many world leaders in one place at the same time approximate security as it has been in paris since the initial attack on the charlie hebdo magazine, is significant. we can hear sirens in the crowd. at these marchs, sometimes

people fall ill and ever to be taken away. >> president hollande on the live pictures seems to be just shaking hands with i assume some of the people that have come out to rally and show support. >> we are going to speak to jacob, a french author an commentator. tell us your reaction to this huge rally of unity support and solidarity in france. >> yes hello. it's a big operation, to me, a big part of it propaganda, which

went very well, because i think so many people who came out for kind of a -- i don't think people understand, really, what's happening because charlie hebdo was not so popular these last years had real difficulties, was very -- his attitude was very problematic about islam about islamic community, about the muslims and we don't know, really, what happened, you know, who mounted this operation. a lot of questions are put aside, so i hope, ok, it's a

success for the government, so i hope that the government won't take this or would take this opportunity to reexamine his policy about the middle east, about the islamic community because the problem which was put out from this affair of charlie hebdo is that during many years indicates the muslims are that discriminated -- that is the question -- a lot of people we have been speaking to say that there must be much bigger efforts made to integrate the muslim community into society in france. you would agree with that. >> yes but -- yes. but they are words only words.

in 1983, for instance, there was a big march, which was called the march of the arabs native arabs in france, but nothing happened. a lot of times in 2005, there were also riots and the government said there will be changes, but they are only words, because the government here is under the influence of a big lobby zionist lobby and has no interest to integrate really the muslims in france, and to give them the place they deserve. i feel that the demonstration would serve to put a more impression on the muslims and not to integrate them, and to

give them all the rights they deserve. >> let me ask you about another subject that has really come to the forefront now. that with the release of this video by amedy coulibaly the suspect in the kosher supermarket, he pledged his allegiance to isis, as well as al baghdadi. do you think that france is now paying the price for its involvement in the u.s. led coalition, targets isis in syria and iraq? how much are france's foreign policiespolicies part of the problem? >> definitely, it's true that

france who had nothing to do in this policy, it is a policy not in its interest, because it searches on this the interests of america and israel, and france sent people to syria or to train over there and these people are marked by the situation of the muslims in france and some of them would turn to do some violence. now, the link between this large group is the middle east, i'm not sure if it's really true, the truth or it's a manipulation. you know, i'm not sure of the link between coulibaly even if

he said that. there are a lot of manipulations of people, and the secret services are strong enough to do a lot of manipulation, so if it's in your interest to imply that organization, yes. >> jacob finally let me ask you about some of the pictures we've seen. that we saw the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in attendance standing right by the french president hollande, so leaders from israel, from russia attending this unitie marsh. they are countries accused of being repressive and discriminatory towards muslims. >> well, i think the israeli

prime minister didn't want to come at first but he came because his foreign minister came but france could not say no to his presence, and he is a big ally, so, you know, all these people have to -- this is diplomacy. it's not the place of the state of israel, who implements terrorism in gaza, is not really there, but it marks that israel is a big ally of france and they have the same interest right now in the middle east, to fight the so-called terrorism. >> ok, jacob, thank you very much for joining us from paris. we'll have to leave it there. thank you jacob cohen for speaking to us.

that crossing back to our senior correspondent, jacki roland, joining us from paris overlooking the events of place de la republique approximate jacki. >> yes, it was quite a few minutes now that we saw the head of the procession start to go move very slowly, very solemnly. right at the front, we have the family of those 17 people killed in the different attacks last week and also close behind them, we have president president

francois hollande. freedom of expression many saw under assault when the offices of charlie hebdo were attacked on wednesday. other values, as well, equality, we're seeing representatives of all of france's different communities here, different religious communities people from different ethnic backgrounds, people whose parents for grand parents immigrated to france. people young old people with physical handicaps really representing the whole diversity of society and fraternity, as well. we've seen that symbolized by the way the families and the also the survivors of those attacks have been walking

hand-in-hand and how various international leaders have been linked arm-in-arm as they slowly move forward from place de la republique. >> ok, jacki i'll leave it there with you now. thank you very much, jacki roland overlooking place de la republique and telling us exactly what she sees from her vantage point. that what i see from here is that the crowds have continued to swell and grow at place de la republique, in the heart of paris. that that is where a march has been taking place. it has now kicked off. we did see some of the political leaders, the world leaders, as well as french politicians come together.

there's francois hollande. >> we'll ever much more with the al jazeera news hour. just stay with us. that. >> yes hello welcome to the news hour and our extended coverage of those marchs in france. i'm here in doha. coming up over the next 60 minutes, hundreds of thousands of people are on the streets of france to show that they are united despite three days of terror. >> dozens of world leaders are also there showing support from europe to africa, the middle east and the americas. >> a simple message the pen is mighteer than the sword. the crowd honoring the