Emmanuel Macron decries ‘antisemitic hatred' after memorial tree cut down
Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the felling as an attack against the memory of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of about 20 young people in January 2006 and tortured on a low-income housing estate in the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Found three weeks later, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital.
An olive tree planted in his memory in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine in 2011 was cut down on Wednesday night, probably with a chainsaw.
The felling stoked fresh concerns about an increase in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France as international tensions mount over Gaza.
'Every effort will be made to punish this act of hatred,' Macron wrote on X, adding that France's fight against antisemitism would be uncompromising. 'The nation will not forget this son of France who died because he was Jewish,' Macron wrote.
The French prime minister, François Bayrou, called the tree 'a living bulwark against oblivion'. 'The never-ending fight against the deadly poison of hatred is our primary duty,' he said.
Officials promised to plant a new memorial tree as soon as possible.
Members of France's Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, say antisemitic acts have surged since Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack.
Halimi's murder struck horror into the country's Jewish community and stirred debate about antisemitism in France. Police at the time initially refused to consider the murder a hate crime, and tens of thousands of people protested to demand justice.
The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, Yonathan Arfi, said on Friday that the felling of the tree was extremely painful. 'There is nothing more cowardly, and those who have murdered his memory are no better than those who took his life 20 years ago,' he said. 'This is not just another antisemitic act, it is a way for antisemites to shout that they are here more than ever.'
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The mayor of Épinay-sur-Seine, Hervé Chevreau, filed a criminal complaint.
The Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, condemned what he called a despicable act and said an investigation had been launched.
Halimi was lured by a 17-year-old girl to a housing estate basement, where he was attacked and subdued with ether. Held prisoner for ransom, he was tortured for 24 days before he was found naked, bound and gagged on 13 February 2006.
Youssouf Fofana, the head of the gang called the Barbarians, was sentenced to life in prison for Halimi's murder. The son of Ivorian immigrants, Fofana had recruited followers among young people from Paris's bleak immigrant suburbs.
Two other trees planted in Halimi's memory were vandalised and sawed down in 2019 in the southern suburb of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, where Halimi was found dying near a railway track.
Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, before dipping to 1,570 last year, according to the interior ministry.
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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Sir Keir Starmer will be accompanying Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer to join European leaders for Zelenskyy-Trump meeting at White House on Monday
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Updated at 11.59am CEST 11.16am CEST 11:16 Russia's defence ministry said this morning that Russian forces had destroyed and intercepted 300 Ukrainian drones and struck storage sites for Sapsan operational-tactical missiles, Interfax news agency reported. Russia's defence ministry said Russian forces had gained better positions near the settlement of Zolotyi Kolodiaz in the Donetsk region, though pro-Ukrainian maps showed that Ukrainian forces had contained the Russian advance, Reuters reports. The defence ministry said war planes, drones and missiles had been used to strike Ukrainian storage sites for Sapsan missiles across the country. 'Four guided aerial bombs and 300 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by air defense systems,' the ministry was quoted as having said. Updated at 12.00pm CEST 10.53am CEST 10:53 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia is complicating efforts to end the war. In a post on X, he wrote: We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation. If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades. But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war. Today, coordination with partners has been ongoing throughout the day … We are preparing for Monday's meeting with President Trump, and I am grateful for the invitation. It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work. 10.42am CEST 10:42 The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2km (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 sq km in the region, according to Ukraine's battlefield mapping project DeepState. Updated at 11.35am CEST 10.18am CEST 10:18 US President Donald Trump said after Friday's meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that he wants to bypass a ceasefire and move straight to a permanent peace deal. This is a major shift in policy. Before the summit, Trump demanded Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire or face heavy US sanctions on oil exports. Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks. After calls with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump wrote on social media on Saturday that 'it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.' With Russia and Ukraine far apart in their demands, it is not clear how easily that could be achieved. We are likely to be issued with a joint statement from the leaders of the 'coalition of the willing' on the call later – it is not clear if they will use the word ceasefire or adopt more vague language to align themselves more with the new American position. Updated at 11.38am CEST 10.06am CEST 10:06 Here is some more detail from the report from my colleagues Edward Helmore and Pjotr Sauer about Trump backing a plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, with Putin demanding Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for peace: Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives. Putin told Trump that in exchange for Donetsk and Luhansk, he would halt further advances and freeze the frontline in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces occupy significant areas. Trump's support for ceding Ukraine's Donbas region (composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions), which is rich in mineral resources, including coal and iron ore, to Russia comes as he voiced support for moving straight to a peace deal and not via a ceasefire, which, Trump said in a social media post on Saturday, 'often times do not hold up.' US support for ceding the Donbas to Russia represents a breach with Ukraine and European allies that oppose such a deal. As part of a deal, the US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Saturday. Trump has threatened economic penalties on countries that buy Russian oil if Moscow refuses a deal and flew US bombers over the Russian leader as he arrived in Alaska. But Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks. 9.44am CEST 09:44 Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine. While Washington prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelenskyy for crunch talks with Donald Trump on Monday, European leaders who make up the so-called 'coalition of the willing', a loose partnership of western countries pledging support for Ukraine, are set to hold a conference call on Sunday to try to protect a peace deal that does not reward Russia for its aggression. The virtual call is being co-chaired by the UK's prime minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. At the Alaska summit on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told the Guardian. Trump reportedly backed the plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, telling European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if Zelenskyy agreed to give up the Donbas region (which is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk). European leaders have repeatedly said that Zelenskyy, who has been sidelined in much of the US-Russian diplomacy to date, must play a greater role in future talks as a lasting peace cannot be achieved without his input. In a statement released on Saturday after the Alaska talks between Trump and Putin ended without any breakthrough, Starmer said in a statement posted to X: President Trump's efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. His leadership in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended. While progress has been made, the next steps must be further talks involving President Zelenskyy. The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without him. Stay with us as we will be keeping you up to date with the latest political and military developments throughout the day. Updated at 10.05am CEST
