France: Remember Ilan Halimi, 11th anniversary of his kidnapping, torturing and murder

Nidra Poller, The murder of Ilan Halimi (February 23, 2006):

Last week, a 23-year-old man initially identified as “Ilan” was found by a passerby stumbling in a field near the railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris. Handcuffed, naked, with four-fifths of his body covered with bruises, stab wounds and serious burns, Ilan died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Soon after, police provided more details. The victim had been kidnapped Jan. 20 and held for 24 days by a gang from the banlieues, the poor suburban projects that ring the French capital, who eluded capture while repeatedly contacting Ilan’s family with ransom demands. The police suspect the group was involved in other kidnapping attempts in the last two months that used young women as bait.

Yet one detail was consistently played down by the investigators and missing from the early media reporting on the killing. The victim, whose full name is Ilan Halimi, was Jewish. Most of the men targeted in other kidnapping attempts were Jewish. Most members of the gang who allegedly carried out the crime are Muslims, whose families come from the Maghreb or sub-Saharan Africa and live in the very sort of neighborhoods that went up in flames during three weeks of nationwide rioting last fall. read more

Ilan Halimi reburial in Jerusalem

Ilan Halimi garden in the Jerusalem Forest. Plaque in Jerusalem forest, David Mordekhai Mae'ir street, at the beginning of the Cedar Trail