World - French, Canadian, Israeli, UN officials demand justice for Sarah Halimi

Published on May 26, 2021 in The Jerusalem Post

Leaders and officials from France, Canada, Israel and the United Nations held a special digital rally demanding justice for Sarah Halimi, a French Jewish grandmother murdered by Kobili Traore.Halimi was brutally beaten and thrown from her balcony window by Traore, who repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the murder. The crime was widely condemned as being antisemitic. However, as Traore was under the influence of marijuana at the time, the French court ruled that he wouldn't stand trial.

This led to public outcry across the world as tens of thousands took to the streets and social medias to voice their outrage at the decision.
“We should never, ever forget Sarah Halimi. This [court’s] decision hurts me, hurts us - citizens of the French Republic. It’s truly a judicial and moral catastrophe,” former French prime minister Manuel Valls said at the digital rally, which was organized by the watchdog NGO Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and the French Jewish umbrella organization the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF).

“Antisemitism has been ravaging… France for more than 12 decades. This antisemitism comes from the far right, from the far left, from our working-class districts, from the Arab-Muslim world under the guise of hatred for Israel and for Jews, or simply hatred. We must eradicate antisemitism from our society.”
The rally also comes as antisemitism has spiked across the Western world, which itself coincided with significant condemnations against Israel and those perceived as being Zionists amid Israel's latest round of fighting with the Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Speaking at the digital rally, Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog discussed how Halimi's murder underscores the persistence of antisemitism. “I call on the international community not to dismiss this issue, but rather to be extremely proactive in the fight against hatred in general and against antisemitism in particular,” he said, and outlined three practical steps that can be taken: Greater adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, increased education, and taking defensive measures that can help protect Jewish communities and institutions.
Also speaking at the event was Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who condemned Halimi's murder as unacceptable. “Sarah Halimi was the victim of an intolerable antisemitic murder. We cannot accept it – Paris cannot accept it,” she said.

“Sarah Halimi was killed twice. She was first the victim of the Islamist violence, of the killer’s antisemitism, but Sarah Halimi was also the victim of a denial of justice,” CRIF president Francis Kalifat said.

Her death “There was such a reluctance to admit the antisemitic character of this murder,”  said French philosopher, writer and intellectual Bernard-Henry Levy, noting that her death “is a symptom of the depth of French society’s denial of antisemitism.”

The UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed also condemned the failiure to bring Traore to trial. “This case sets a tenuous precedent and we all know too well where impunity for hate crimes lead us,” he warned. “In addition to ensuring justice for Sarah Halimi, France and other countries need to urgently face up to rising antisemitism.”

Canada’s special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism Irwin Colter noted that “the antisemitic murder of Sarah Halimi is a dramatic case study of both the pandemic of antisemitism on the one hand and the indifference and impunity that underpin it on the other.”

Colter, a former Canadian justice minister, urged for a wider adoption of the IHRA definition and said countries should have action plans to fight antisemitism.

Several prominent French religious leaders – specifically French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia; Darcy Imam Hassan Shalgumi; and Father Christophe Le Sourt, responsible for the Church of France's relations with the Jewish community – also came out to demand justice for Halimi and condemn rising antisemitism.