Ilan Halimi
צילום רפרודוקציה: משטרת צרפת
Iraqi link to Halimi killing
France has tough time calling a spade a spade when it comes to anti-Semitism
After a week of denials, French police finally admitted that there was an anti-Semitic element to the terrifying torture and murder of Ilan Halimi in Paris.
French authorities have great difficulty in admitting there is an anti-Semitic element to attacks on Jews, and they place a particularly high threshold for proving anti-Semitic motives.
The murder of Jewish disc jockey Sebastian Salam on February 19, 2003 by a Muslim neighbor was described as a deranged act, rather than a hate crime.
But in the Halimi case, the way in which the victim was killed is testament to the anti-Semitic nature of the crime: Halimi was held naked and tortured, head covered, just like photos of prisoners tortured by U.S. and British soldiers in Iraqi jails published in the media, the internet and even movie theaters.
Wave of anti-Semitism
Recently, the Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves" has joined the recent wave of anti-Semitic films to "grace" television and movie screens of late. The film deals with, amongst other things, the story of Turkish officers interrogated with covered heads by American soldiers – an incident taken as a national disgrace in Turkey, and one that has inspired a wave of anti-American hatred there.
The Iraqi connection is also clear from the photographs Halimi's captors sent the family, in which the victim is shown bound with a gun to his head, just like in films coming out of Iraq. Ilan Halimi was murdered not just because his abductors believed that Jews had money. He was tortured for three weeks and was killed because French Jews have been blamed for the war in Iraq.
Justified concern
French authorities have good reason to worry about the story's exposure, for it is not only Arabs and Muslims who blame Jews for the war in Iraq.
Several members of the French media have pointed to a supposed international Jewish cabal, including Israeli and American Jews, to explain the occupation of Iraq.
The worst outbreak of anti-Semitism in France took place in March/April 2003, when the invasion of Iraq was launched, and caused amongst other things Jews to be blamed for the war.
Reports published on the state of anti-Semitism camouflaged the real reason for attacks on Jews, preferring foggy explanations that "The attacks on Jews are connected to the situation in the Middle East," in order to create an impression that the violence stemmed from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than from Iraq.
Rising tensions
Nowadays, when rising tensions between the West and the Muslim world have once again brought the debate over Iraq to the headlines and Danish cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad have been featured alongside photos of tortured Iraqi prisoners, anti-Semitic incitement is once again raising its ugly head.
"Valley of the Wolves" portrays a Jewish doctor removing kidneys from Iraqis for transplant into Jewish patients in Tel Aviv, London, and New York.
The Turkish creators then added sin to crime by defending their anti-Semitic film saying it is based on actual events.
The murder of Ilan Halimi proves that anti-Semitic incitement kills. We must not take it lightly.
Dr. Anat Peri is a researcher in the history of anti-Semitism
