Ilan Halimi Memorial Tree Vandalized; Macron condemns an anti -Semitic act

French leaders condemn vandals who cut a tree honoring a Jew who was kidnapped and tortured for more than three weeks before dying on the way to a hospital.

In 2006, a group called the “Barbarians gang”, led by Youssouf Fofana, kidnapped Ilan Halimi, a 23 -year -old Jewish man. For more than three weeks, Halimi was selected hostage and tortured. Believing an old anti -Semitic stereotype, Halimi’s kidnappers supposed that his family was rich and demanded a ransom that he could not afford.

At least 27 people participated in the kidnapping and torture of Halimi, but it is believed that more known the crime and did not report it to the police.

On February 13, 2006, Halimi was found naked, handcuffed and barely hung on life in a station. He died when he was transported to the hospital.

A photo of Ilan Halimi during a fortune memorial on February 13, 2019 in Sainte-Genevree-des-Bois. (Bertrand Guay / AFP via Getty Images)

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The commemorative olive tree, planted in honor of Halimi 14 years ago, was shot down on Wednesday evening. The Associated Press reported that the slaughter seemed to be done with a chainsaw.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the act, saying: “Cutting the tree in honor of Ilan Halimi is an attempt to kill him a second time.

“He will not succeed: the nation will not forget this child of France who died because he was Jewish”, ” He added.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou said: “No crime can uproot his memory.”

In response, the American ambassador to France Charles Kushner thanked Bayrou for his “strong and unequivocal” conviction of the slaughter of the commemorative tree.

“I hope that your clear conviction, as head of the French government, is a model of leadership in principle and zero tolerance with regard to anti -Semitism in France and in the world.

This photo shows a commemorative stele and the trunk of an olive, which would have been cut with a chainsaw. The tree was planted in 2011 to honor Ilan Halimi in Epinay-sur-Seine, near Paris, August 15, 2025. Halimi, a young French Jew, was kidnapped and tortured to death in 2006. (Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)

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Although he strongly condemns the incident, Macron was not congratulated by the Israeli Minister of the Diaspora and fighting against anti -Semitism Amichai Chikli. The Israeli official underlined Macron’s recent promise to recognize a Palestinian state and suggested that the French president actually “exercised the ax”.

“Macron rushed to condemn him – but I told him that his own hands exercised the ax. No French president was more hostile to the Jewish community since the Vichy regime”, ” Chikli wrote.

“By pushing the recognition of a Palestinian state – under the heavy shadow of the atrocities of October 7, while our rotten people in captivity – Macron puts themselves in the political vigne of Hamas and the rising tide of global anti -Semitism.”

In the years following the murder of Halimi, France faced anti -Semitic incidents, including a 2015 attack on the Hyper Cacher store in Paris which left four people. In March, just over 10 years after the attack, the store was again targeted. A fire set a fire that damaged the front of the store and part of its interior, according to Israel’s times.

A view of the slogan “El Al Genocide Airline” sprayed with red paint on the entrance to 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 persisted since the war in Gaza began in 2023 after the brutal massacre of Hamas on October 7. Jews in France have not only seen mass demonstrations against Israel. They were victims of anti -Semitic violence.

In June 2024, a 12 -year -old girl was raped by three teenagers who, according to police reports, said death threats and anti -Semitic remarks during the attack. The incident triggered indignation in France and was sentenced by Macron.

According to Israel’s timesThe boys were accused of sexual assault against a minor and to record and share sexual images, aggravated by religious motivation. The point of sale reported that two of the attackers, who were 13 years old at the time of rape, were sentenced to nine and seven years in prison. An attacker could not be sentenced to prison because of his age and would be placed in a foster family closed for five years.

The demonstrators hold signs who say “raped at 12 years old because Jew” during a demonstration in Paris on June 20, 2024, after the alleged anti -Semetic gang rape of a 12 -year -old girl in the suburbs of Paris in Courbevoie. (Zakaria Abdelkafi / AFP via Getty Images)

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Recently, the Israeli airline El Al was a target of anti -Semitism in France. Earlier this month, the company’s Paris offices were vandalized with red paint and anti-Israeli graffiti. The Vandals wrote that El Al was an “genocide airline”.

A few days later, a French air traffic controller broadcast “Free Palestine” to El Al Pilots. The worker has since been suspended. El Al called “non -professional and inappropriate” remarks.

Fofana, who led the attack on Halimi, was sentenced to life prison in 2009 and was not eligible for parole for 22 years. Two of his accomplices were designed at 15 and 18 years in prison. A minor at the time of the attack was also sentenced to 15 years in prison. A girl who used to attract Halimi was sentenced to nine years in prison.