The Japan Times - Macron denounces 'antisemitic hydra' as he honours 2006 Jewish murder victim

To commemorate Halimi, whose abduction and murder in 2006 horrified France, Macron planted an oak tree in the garden of the Elysee Palace and stressed that the fight against antisemitism must involve all French people.

He also called for a "penalty of ineligibility" for elected officials guilty of antisemitic and racist remarks.

Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths 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.

The commemorations come after a diplomatic row between the United States and France broke out last year when US ambassador Charles Kushner criticised the French government for what he said was its insufficient action against antisemitism.

"When a Jew is in danger in the homeland, it is the homeland itself that is in danger," Macron said at the Elysee.

He said antisemitism had worsened over the past two decades.

"In 20 years, and despite the resolute efforts of our police officers, gendarmes, judges, teachers and elected officials, the antisemitic hydra has kept advancing," he 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."

- 'Pogrom of October 7' -

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.

Members of France's Jewish community have said the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 which triggered Israel's military response in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Macron decried what he called "Islamist antisemitism which was behind the pogrom of October 7," referring to the attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

The term "pogrom" refers to violent attacks against Jews because of their religion.

He also attacked "far-left antisemitism", saying it "rivals that of the far right," and "antisemitism that uses the mask of anti-Zionism to advance quietly".

Macron said he wanted "mandatory electoral bans" for officials guilty of "antisemitic, racist, and discriminatory acts and remarks".

"All too often, the sentences handed down against the perpetrators of antisemitic offences and crimes seem derisory," he said.

Macron also said that France would hold major social media platforms accountable and demand the removal of harmful content to combat "the poison of digital hatred".

"If commitments are not met, we will activate European law, which provides for significant fines," he added.

"With all due respect to certain powers that would like to lecture us: in the France of the Enlightenment, free speech stops at antisemitism and racism," he said, in an apparent reference to the United States.

K.Tanaka--JT