Honoring 2006 Jewish murder victim, Macron says ‘antisemitic hydra’ has only grown since
Marking 20 years since Ilan Halimi’s brutal killing, French president denounces Islamist, far-left and far-right anti-Jewish hate, noting some of it is masked as anti-Zionism
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
PARIS, France — French President Emmanuel Macron denounced on Friday what he described as an “antisemitic hydra” that had crept into “every crack” of society, as he commemorated Ilan Halimi, a French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006.
In a crime that horrified France two decades ago, Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux. Found three weeks later, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital.
“In 20 years, and despite the resolute efforts of our police officers, gendarmes, judges, teachers and elected officials, the antisemitic hydra has kept advancing,” he said. “Constantly assuming new faces, it has insinuated itself into the heart of our societies, into every crevice, too often accompanied by that same pact of cowardice: to keep silent, to refuse to see.”
Speaking at his presidential palace, Macron decried what he called “Islamist antisemitism which was behind the pogrom of October 7,” referring to the invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023, led by Palestinian terror group Hamas, in which 1,200 people were murdered in southern Israel and 251 were abducted to Gaza.
The term “pogrom” refers to violent attacks on Jews because of their religion.
He also attacked “far-left antisemitism,” saying it “rivals that of the far right,” and “antisemitism that uses the mask of anti-Zionism to advance quietly.”
Macron also said he wanted “mandatory electoral bans” for officials guilty of “antisemitic, racist and discriminatory acts and remarks.”
“All too often, the sentences handed down against the perpetrators of antisemitic offenses and crimes seem derisory,” he said. “Government and parliament will work to strengthen the penalties for antisemitic and racist acts.”
France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Members of France’s Jewish community have said the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the 2023 Hamas onslaught, which triggered the war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.