Anti-Semitism in France. The terrible tale of Ilan Halimi

Date: 04/03/06

A horrific murder triggers new fears over anti-Semitism

HE WAS bound and left to die close to a suburban railway station outside Paris. He had been kidnapped and brutally tortured for three weeks by a gang demanding a ransom from his family. His naked body was covered in bruises, knife slashes and burns. The presumed gang leader, Youssouf Fofana, who calls himself "the brain of the barbarians", now faces extradition from Cote d'Ivoire, where he fled. Those responsible for the murder of Ilan Halimi, said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, last week, acted on the belief that "Jews have money. That is called anti-Semitism by amalgam."

France has been rocked by the murder of this young mobile-phone salesman from a modest family. Last weekend, politicians of all stripes--from Mr Sarkozy on the right to Francois Hollande, the Socialist leader, on the left--joined tens of thousands in a march against racism and anti-Semitism. The murder seemed to some a grotesque fusion of many of France's current troubles: violence, immigration, the banlieues, nihilism, racism, anti-Semitism. The discovery of this degree of inhumanity, perpetrated by French-educated youths, of both immigrant and white French descent, and including Islamist extremists, has taken the country aback. It was, as Le Monde put it, "a crime of the times, a form of magnifying glass on the real state of our society."

It is not just the ugly nature of the murder that has stirred tempers. France is particularly sensitive to charges that it is anti-Semitic, especially since Ariel Sharon called in 2004 for French Jews to migrate to Israel because of "the wildest anti-Semitism" in their country. In a poll in February, 57% of those questioned said they thought that anti-Semitism was on the rise. In fact the latest police figures suggest that the number of anti-Semitic attacks in 2005 fell by nearly half compared with 2004, from 974 to 504.

The government knows it is in the international spotlight, and can afford no complacency. In the past, this has sometimes led to over-hasty claims of anti-Semitism. Shortly after Mr Sharon's appeal, when Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, was interior minister, he denounced an apparent anti-Semitic attack against a young woman on a train, which later turned out to have been fabricated. This may explain why, in the Halimi case, the government waited before accepting its anti-Semitic nature.

France is treading a delicate line between the need to be seen clamping down on anti-Semitism, and a wish not to stir up sectarian and religious hatred. The country is home not only to Europe's biggest Jewish population, but its biggest Muslim one too. Religion was not a big factor in last autumn's suburban riots. But they showed the potential for violence in the banlieues, home to so many of France's Muslims.