2 days ago
Emmanuel Macron decries ‘antisemitic hatred' after memorial tree cut down
The felling of an olive tree planted in memory of a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 caused outrage in France on Friday, with Emmanuel Macron promising to punish an act of 'antisemitic hatred'.
Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the act as an attack against the memory of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths 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 Halimi's memory in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine in 2011 was cut down on Wednesday night, probably with a chainsaw.
The incident 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 it bombardment and subsequent aid blockade of the Gaza Stripin response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 incursion.
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.
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'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.'
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, he had recruited followers among youths from Paris's bleak immigrant suburbs.
Two other trees planted in memory of Halimi were vandalised and sawn 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.
