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| Ilan Halimi’s murder dominates annual CRIF dinner meeting
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Burial ceremony for Ilan Halimi at the cemetery of Pantin, near Paris
Photo: Alain Azria
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Traditionally the annual dinner organised by CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organisations, has been dominated by the French government’s Mideast policy regarding the Middle East, especially Israel.
Every year, the French Prime minister delivers his speech to some 800 invitees, France’s top political, social, religious, business, diplomatic and communal leaders.
But this year, while statements about Hamas and Iran were expected to top the agenda, the atrocious murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish Parisian man, radically changed the priorities of the dinner meeting, Monday night, at the Pavillon d'Armenonville in Paris. “It is not a festive meeting. Never France has known such a grave moment of crisis. We must find solutions to live together and find again a fruitful dialogue beyond the differences,” chief rabbi of Paris, David Messas, told EJP.
Writer Marek Halter claimed that “there is a real malaise about the dangerous relation people still make between Jews and money,” in a reference to information that Ilan Halimi’s kidnappers targeted Jews because they thought “that all Jews are rich.”
Communal shock
French Jews have been shocked by Halimi’s killing and suspicions of the anti-Semitic motivation of the perpetrators were confirmed by Prime minister Dominique de Villepin himself.
Members of the Jewish community asked the representative body for a strong and clear stand at a march last Sunday in memory of the murdered man.
This led the CRIF to ask for a “clear response” from the authorities during the dinner. “Is Ilan dead because he is Jewish? Mr Prime Minister you owe the truth to the country,” Roger Cukierman, the CRIF’s president, who attended Ilan Halimi’s burial last Friday, asked the guest of honour outright.
An emotional Villepin responded that “all light has to be shed" on the odious and brutal murder of Halimi and declared that the judge investigating on the gang that kidnapped tortured and murdered the young phone salesman decided to retain the thesis of a racist crime.
“Barbarous crime”
“I want to tell Ilan’s family that all my thoughts go to them. I want them to know that we are going to do all what we can to arrest the authors of this barbarous crime and bring them to justice,” the Prime minister said.
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Dominique de Villepin, France's Prime Minister with Roger Cukierman, CRIF's president and Dalil Boubakeur, chariman of the umbrella group of French Muslim organisations. | “Allow me to convey tonight a message to Ilan Halimi’s family and tell them how much I share their sorrow,” Villepin added.
French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who attended the dinner, was due to meet Tuesday afternoon with Ilan Halimi’s family members and the CRIF leaders.
News that the murder has had anti-Semitic motivations came as the reported number of anti-Semitic acts in France has sharply declined last year.
“This evolution does not mean that the roots of evil have disappeared,” said Cukierman. “The level of anti-Semitic acts is seven times higher than six years ago,” he stressed. “It’s the result of the mobilisation of all,” Villepin said, hailing the determination of interior minister Sarkozy who, he said, “is particularly devoted to this fight.”
“Fight against anti-Semitism is an absolute priority and a moral duty. It must help us build a society of the Republic and not of communities,” the Prime minister stressed.
Villepin announced that Education minister Gilles de Robien will work out a "reference dossier" to help teachers and schools directors “who have to face with the scourge of anti-Semitism.”
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