French Jews expressed outrage on Tuesday after Al Jazeera said it had considered airing footage of shooting at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school last week in which a rabbi and three children were killed.

Richard Prasquier, the head of CRIF, the country´s Jewish umbrella group, lashed out at the Qatari-based television network saying it should not have contemplated broadcasting the images out of respect for the families of the victims and concern that it might inspire more violence.

"Even the idea of playing with the possibility of sending these images is outrageous," he told The Jerusalem Post. "We know quite well the consequences, that the images would spark new atrocities."

Earlier in the day Al Jazeera´s Paris Bureau Chief Tarrouche Zied said it had received an anonymous letter containing a disk-on-key with video of the shootings. The journalist said the video was apparently taken by the murderer and depicted graphic scenes of the three separate shootings believed to have been carried out by Mohammed Merah over the past two weeks that left seven dead .

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the television network not to air the video "out of respect for the victims and respect for the Republic." Shortly afterwards the news network said it had decided not to show the graphic.

Prasquier said he first learned Al Jazeera was contemplating showing the footage during a meeting in Paris with relatives of those murdered at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse .

"The families were shocked, we were all shocked," he said (© 1995- 2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/27/12)