The felling of an olive tree planted in reminiscence of a younger French Jewish man tortured to dying in 2006 brought about outrage in France on Friday, with Emmanuel Macron promising to punish an act of “antisemitic hatred”.
Politicians throughout the political spectrum condemned the act as an assault in opposition to the reminiscence of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of round 20 youths in January 2006 and tortured on a low-income housing property within the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Discovered three weeks later, the 23-year-old died on the way in which to hospital.
An olive tree planted in Halimi’s reminiscence within the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine in 2011 was lower down on Wednesday evening, in all probability with a chainsaw.
The incident stoked recent considerations about a rise in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France as worldwide tensions mount over Gaza.
“Every effort will be made to punish this act of hatred,” Macron wrote on X, including that France’s battle in opposition to antisemitism can 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, known as the tree “a living bulwark against oblivion”.
“The never-ending fight against the deadly poison of hatred is our primary duty,” he mentioned.
Officers promised to plant a brand new memorial tree as quickly as potential.
Members of France’s Jewish neighborhood, one of many largest on the planet, say antisemitic acts have surged since Israel launched it bombardment and subsequent help blockade of the Gaza Stripin response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 incursion.
Halimi’s homicide struck horror into the nation’s Jewish neighborhood and stirred debate about antisemitism in France. Police on the time initially refused to think about the homicide a hate crime, and tens of hundreds of individuals protested to demand justice.
The president of the Consultant Council of Jewish Establishments in France, Yonathan Arfi, mentioned on Friday that the felling of the tree was extraordinarily 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 mentioned. “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 prison grievance.
The Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, condemned what he known as a despicable act and mentioned an investigation had been launched.
Halimi was lured by a 17-year-old woman to a housing property basement, the place he was attacked and subdued with ether. Held prisoner for ransom, he was tortured for twenty-four days earlier than he was discovered bare, sure and gagged on 13 February 2006.
Youssouf Fofana, the pinnacle of the gang known as the Barbarians, was sentenced to life in jail for Halimi’s homicide. The son of Ivorian immigrants, he had recruited followers amongst youths from Paris’s bleak immigrant suburbs.
Two different bushes planted in reminiscence of Halimi have been vandalised and sawn down in 2019 within the southern suburb of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, the place Halimi was discovered dying close to a railway observe.
Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, earlier than dipping to 1,570 final yr, in accordance with the inside ministry.
