French president vows to punish those who felled tree planted in memory of Jewish man tortured to death in 2006
The felling of an olive tree planted in memory of a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 caused outrage in France on Friday, with Emmanuel Macron promising to punish an act of “antisemitic hatred”.
Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the felling as an attack against the memory of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of about 20 young people in January 2006 and tortured on a low-income housing estate in the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Found three weeks later, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital.
An olive tree planted in his memory in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine in 2011 was cut down on Wednesday night, probably with a chainsaw.
