generalspeaking

"Son of France"

"[The felling of the olive tree on Wednesday was] an attempt to kill Ilan Halimi a second time. All means are being deployed to punish this act of hatred." 

"Every effort will be made to punish this act of hatred."

"The nation will not forget this son of France who died because he was Jewish."

French President Emmanuel Macron 

 

"[The felling of the tree was] extremely painful. There is nothing more cowardly, and those who have murdered his memory are no better than those who took his life 20 years ago."

"This is not just another antisemitic act. It is a way for antisemites to shout that they are here more than ever."

Yonathan Arfi, president, Representative council of Jewish Institutions in France

Getty Images

"Macron rushed to condemn it — but I told him his own hands wielded the axe. No French president has been more hostile to the Jewish community since the Vichy regime."

"By pushing recognition of a Palestinian state — under the heavy shadow of the October 7 atrocities, while our people rot in captivity — Macron places himself at the political vanguard of Hamas and of the surging tide of global antisemitism."

Israeli Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli  

In 2006 a young Jewish man, 23-year-old Ilan Halimi was lured by a 17-year-old girl to meet her at a housing estate basement in the suburbs. On his arrival, he was attacked, and subdued with ether. The mind behind his attack reasoned that as a Jew, he came from a wealthy family and the plan was to demand a hefty ransom for his return. There was no wealth and consequently no ransom could save the young man from what came next. He was tortured for 24 days. finally he was found naked, bound and gagged on February 13, 2006. He died on the way to hospital.

 

The gang known as the "Barbarians" was led by the son of Ivorian immigrants, Youssouf Fofana. After the trial when he was found guilty of murder he was sentenced to life in prison. Fofana had formed his gang by recruiting followers among youth from the bleak immigrant suburbs of Paris called the banlieues where French authorities never dare venture in fear of their lives. Neither French police nor fire brigades enter the banlieues which represent an entirely other France, taken over by violence, hostility to France and its values, and rampant crime and antisemitism.

 

France's Jewish community is known to represent one of the largest in the world. That community has lived in France for thousands of years. The more recent influx of Muslim immigrants, migrants and refugees has turned France into an outpost of anti-Western values and heritage, where French law is moot and Sharia is free-lanced. France's president caters to the dark threat within. His pledges to the French Jewish community of equality, fraternity and liberty is empty and vacuous in the reality of Muslim occupation.

A picture of Ilan Halimi at a makeshift memorial Feb. 13, 2019, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. (Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)

An olive tree was planted in memory of Ilan Halimi as a gesture of love and compassion in 2011. This past week that tree was cut down in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine. Ilan Halimi's kidnapping by a gang of 20 youths and his subsequent prolonged torture in the Paris suburb of Bagneux represented a vile symptom of anti-Jew hatred beyond the traditions of France historically with its Jewish population. Following the October 7 2023 Hamas atrocities in southern Israel, Muslims everywhere have renewed and intensified their voracious appetite for Jew-baiting, Jew-hating violence.

 

While decrying the increased incidents of antisemitism, the French government itself, as though hearking back to WWII's Vichy period, has fanned the flames of virulent hate by its critiques and abandonment of an erstwhile ally in deference to its burgeoning Muslim demographic. Perhaps no one can doubt Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's earnestness in calling the tree "a living bulwark against oblivion...The never-ending fight against the deadly poison of hatred is our primary duty", he vowed. Alas, too little, too late. 

A view of the slogan "EL AL genocide airline" sprayed with red paint on the entrance of the EL AL Israel Airlines offices in Paris Aug. 7, 2025. (Noemie Olive/Reuters)

Labels: Expired French Values, France, Gang Murder, Ilan Halimi, Paris Banlieues, President Emmanuel Macron

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, August 17, 2025