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"This is called anti-Semitism by confusion," interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy told France's lawmakers
Photo: Assemblee Nationale
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French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy declared Tuesday that the murder of Ilan Halimi was indirectly motivated by anti-Semitism, supporting claims within France’s shocked Jewish community that the brutal kidnapping and assassination of the 23-year-old Jewish man were in part a hate crime.
"The truth is that these hoodlums first of all acted for villainous and sordid reasons - money - but they had the belief, and I quote, ’that Jews have money’ and that even if those they kidnapped did not, the community would rally round”, Sarkozy told French Parliament, citing a statement by a member of the kidnapping gang.
He mentioned that four of the six other people targeted unsuccessfully by the gang were Jewish. “This is called anti-Semitism by confusion,” he added.
Islamist documentation discovered
Sarkozy, who met with Ilan Halimi’s brother-in-law and a delegation of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish secular organization, provided lawmakers with additional information about the occurring investigation.
 The truth is that these hoodlums first of all acted for villainous and sordid reasons - money - but they had the belief, and I quote, ’that Jews have money’ and that even if those they kidnapped did not, the community would rally round
Nicolas Sarkozy, France's interior minister |
He said that pro-Palestinian and Islamist documents were found during searched conducted at the suspects’ homes in the city of Bagneux, south of Paris, where Ilan Halimi was detained during three weeks.
Sarkozy, who didn’t establish a link between the documents and the murder, warned against blaming the Muslim community. "What we don’t need now, in addition to this barbarity, is misunderstanding, intolerance and racism," he said.
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French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy meeting a CRIF delegation.
Photo: Alain Azria |
According to the minister, these documents were published by the CBSP, the Palestinian Charity Committee (“Comite de bienfaisance et de secours aux Palestiniens”), with Salafist or Islamist texts.
The CBSP is a French non-governmental organization which is accused by Israel of supporting terrorism. In August 2003, the United States ordained to freeze the organisation’s funds, accusing it of financially supporting Hamas. The NGO judged the accusations “ridiculous” and is not included in the European list of terrorist groups.
Communal concern
Simon Samuels, international relation’s director of the Paris-based Wiesenthal Centre wrote to Sarkozy on Tuesday urging him to prevent what he called “the Jihadist violence, hatred and anti-Semitism from rooting the French society”.
“They were initially presented by the police as little outlawed, it is now obvious that their motivations were Islamist,” Samuels wrote.
Sarkozy told us that he “felt this affair as a failure,” Roger Cukierman, the CRIF’s head, told the press after meeting with interior minister.
Former CRIF president Henri Hajdenberg, who also attended the meeting with Sarkozy, stressed to reporters that anti-Semitism in France “was established in some suburbs housing estates.”
“The minister told us that neighbors in the Bagneux building were very likely informed that Ilan Halimi was detained there,” Cukierman said. “This shows that gangs are controlling the life in these neighborhoods,” he added.
"Nobody is denying that their priority was money, but their vision based on the prejudice that Jews have money, and then once they are kidnapped, the way they happily tortured them, shows the anti-Semitic element."