French President Emmanuel Macron Friday denounced what he described as an "anti-Semitic hydra" that had crept into "every crack" of society as he commemorated Ilan Halimi, a French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006.
In a crime that horrified France two decades ago, Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 young people in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux. Found more than three weeks later after the kidnappers had failed to extort a ransom payment from his family, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital.
Prosecutors at the time described the 28-year-old gang leader Youssouf Fofana as a "perverted megalomaniac" who instructed accomplices to target Jews for ransom kidnappings "because they are loaded with dough".
"In 20 years, and despite the resolute efforts of our police officers, gendarmes, judges, teachers and elected officials, the anti-Semitic hydra has kept advancing," Macron said.
"Constantly assuming new faces, it has insinuated itself into the heart of our societies, into every crevice, too often accompanied by that same pact of cowardice: to keep silent, to refuse to see."
No, the UN's Francesca Albanese did not call Israel 'the common enemy of humanity'
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Truth or Fake © France 24
05:20
Speaking at the presidential palace, Macron decried what he called "Islamist anti-Semitism which was behind the pogrom of October 7", referring to the attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 led by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The term "pogrom" refers to violent attacks on Jews because of their religion.
He also attacked what he described as "far-left antisemitism", saying it "rivals that of the far right", and "anti-Semitism that uses the mask of anti-Zionism to advance quietly".
Macron also said he wanted "mandatory electoral bans" for officials guilty of "anti-Semitic, racist, and discriminatory acts and remarks".
"All too often, the sentences handed down against the perpetrators of anti-Semitic offenses and crimes seem derisory," he said.
"Government and parliament will work to strengthen the penalties for anti-Semitic and racist acts," he added.
France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza and occupied Palestinian territories.
Members of France's Jewish community have said the number of anti-Semitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel's military campaign in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has since killed more than 72,000 people, health authorities say, most of them believed to be women and children.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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