“When a Jew is in danger in the homeland, it is the homeland itself that is in danger,” he said during a an event marking twenty years since the murder of Ilan Halimi.
The fight against antisemitism must involve all French people, declared French President Emmanuel Macron as he paid tribute Friday to the memory of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi, a French Jew who was abducted and tortured to death twenty years ago, during a commemoration held at the Elysée Palace in Paris.
He also called for a “penalty of ineligibility” for elected officials guilty of antisemitic and racist remarks.
Accompanied by Anne-Laure Abitbol, Ilan Halimi’s sister, the president planted an oak tree in the garden of the Elysée Palace. Several trees planted in Halimi’s memory have been vandalised.
Halimi was kidnapped by the ‘’gang of barbarians’’ in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux. Found three weeks later, he died on the way to hospital.
“When a Jew is in danger in the homeland, it is the homeland itself that is in danger,” Macron said. “We cannot airbrush French Jews out of the republic’s family photo”.
He said antisemitism had worsened over the past two decades.
‘’Never forget this. Your place is here, not simply because it is your country, but because France needs you to remain itself,” he said.
“In 20 years, and despite the resolute efforts of our police officers, gendarmes, judges, teachers and elected officials, the antisemitic hydra has kept advancing,” Macronadded. said.
“Constantly assuming new faces, it has insinuated itself into the heart of our societies, into every crack, too often accompanied by that same pact of cowardice: to keep silent, to refuse to see,’’ he added.
The number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli military operation that followed in Gaza against the terrorist group.
According to the latest figures published by the Interior Ministry, 1,320 antisemit acts were recorded in 2025.
According to the ministry, anti-Semitic acts accounted for 53% of anti-religious acts in France, even though the Jewish population in France represents less than 1% of the French population.