French leaders condemn vandals who have chopped a tree in honor of a Jewish man who was abducted and tortured for more than three weeks before they died on their way to a hospital.
In 2006, a group that called themselves the ‘Gang of Barbarians’, under the leadership of Youssouf Fofana, Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish man, abducted. Halimi has been hostage and tortured for more than three weeks. Halimi’s kidnappers believed that an old anti -Semitic stereotype assumed that his family had rich and demanded a ransom that it could not afford.
At least 27 people participated in the kidnapping and torture of Halimi, but it is believed that more was aware of crime and did not report on law enforcement.
On February 13, 2006, Halimi was found naked, fascinated and hardly held on to life at a train station. He died as he was transported to a hospital.
A photo of Ilan Halimi on an improvised memorial on 13 February 2019, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. (Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty images)
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The memorial olive tree, planted in Halimi’s honor 14 years ago, was enjoyed late on Wednesday evening. The corresponding press It reported that the hoods seemed to have been done with a chainsaw.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the law and said: “Reducing the tree in honor of Ilan Halimi is an attempt to kill him a second time.
“It will not succeed: the nation will not forget this child of France that died because he was Jewish,” He added.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou said, “No crime can uproot his memory.”
In response, the American ambassador in France thanked Charles Kushner Bayrou for his “strong and unambiguous” condemnation of the caps of the memorial tree.
“I hope that your clear conviction, as the leader of the French government, is a model of principal leadership and zero tolerance for the increase in anti -Semitism in France and worldwide. Your statement will resonate far beyond the immediate context, reassuring those who cherish all who cherish all tolerance,” wrote to X.
This photo shows a memorial style and the trunk of an olive tree, reportedly cut down with a chainsaw. The tree was planted in 2011 to honor Ilan Halimi in Epinay-sur-Seine, near Paris, 15 August 2025. Halimi, a young French Jew, was kidnapped and tortured in 2006. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty images)
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Despite the fact that the incident is strongly convicted, Macron was not praised by the Israeli Minister of Diaspora and the fight against anti -Semitism Amichai Chikli. The Israeli official pointed out Macron’s recent promise to acknowledge a Palestinian state and suggested that the French president effectively ‘used the ax’.
“Macron hurried to condemn it – but I told him that his own hands have the ax. No French president has been more hostile to the Jewish community since the Vichy regime,” ” Chikli wrote.
“By pushing recognition of a Palestinian state – under the heavy shadow of the atrocities of October 7, while our people rot in captivity – Macron places himself on the political forefront of Hamas and of the rising tide of global anti -Semitism.”
In the years since the murder of Halimi, France has struggled with anti -Semitic incidents, including an attack of 2015 on the Hyper Cacher store in Paris that left four people. In March, just over 10 years after the attack, the store was again the target. A fire founder put a fire that damaged the front of the store and part of his interior, according to The times of Israel.
A view of the slogan “El Al Genocide Airline” sprayed with red paint on the entrance of the offices of El Al Israel Airlines in Paris on August 7, 2025. (Noemie Olive/Reuters)
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Anti -Semitism in France has existed since the war in Gaza started in 2023 after the massacre on October 7 from Hamas. Jews in France have not only seen mass protests against Israel. They have been the victim of anti -Semitic violence.
In June 2024, a 12-year-old girl was raped by three teenage boys who, according to police reports, expressed death threats and anti-Semitic remarks during the attack. The incident led to indignation in France and was convicted by Macron.
According to The times of IsraelThe boys were accused of sexual attack on a minor and the recording and sharing of sexual images, exacerbated by religious motivation. The outlet reported that two of the attackers, who were 13 at the time of the rape, were sentenced to nine and seven years in prison. An attacker could not be sentenced to prison because of his age and is said to be placed in closed foster care for five years.
Protesters have signs that say “raped on 12 because Jewish” during a demonstration in Paris, 20 June 2024, after the alleged anti-Semetic gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in the suburb of Courbevoie van Paris. (Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty images)
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Recently, the Israeli airline EL has already been a target for anti -Semitism in France. Earlier this month, the offices of the Paris company were destroyed with red paint and anti-Israel graffiti. De Vandals wrote that El was already a ‘genocide airline’.
Only a few days later, a French air traffic controller sends “Free Palestine” to El Al Pilots. The employee has since been suspended. El Al Al called the comments “unprofessional and inappropriate.”
Fofana, who led the attack on Halimi, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 and is not eligible for conditional release for 22 years. Two of his henchmen were sent to 15 and 18 years in prison. A man who was a minor at the time of the attack was also sentenced to 15 years in prison. A girl who was luring Halimi was sentenced to nine years in prison.
