Buried Where He’s Welcome

Welcome home, Ilan.

The body of a French Jew who was kidnapped and tortured to death last year by a gang seeking ransom will be taken to Israel for burial.

 

Ilan Halimi will be flown to Israel and buried in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul cemetery Feb. 9.

 

The Halimi family, led by Ilan’s mother Ruth, will accompany the body to Israel, along with David Roche, Paris head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and European Jewish Congress President Pierre Besnainou, who helped arrange the burial.

 

Halimi’s murder in early 2006 allegedly was committed by a youth gang calling itself the Barbarians.

 

French Jews were convinced that Halimi was kidnapped and tortured to death over a three-week period because he was Jewish, but many Gallic French people believed Halimi’s religion had nothing to do with the case and that government officials labelled it an anti-Semitic crime only to placate Jewish community leaders ‚Äî despite the fact that gang members reportedly admitted during the investigation that they hate Jews and kidnapped Halimi because they thought all Jews were rich.

 

Gang members are in jail awaiting trial.

Previous coverage of the Halimi murder can be found here, here, and here.

1 thought on “Buried Where He’s Welcome”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top