Twenty years after Ilan Halimi's murder, Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech at the Élysée denouncing the persistence of antisemitism. The president proposes mandatory ineligibility for elected officials convicted of antisemitic, racist, or discriminatory acts or statements. He planted an oak tree in memory of the victim.
On February 13, 2026, the twentieth anniversary of Ilan Halimi's murder—a 23-year-old French Jew tortured to death in 2006 by the 'gang des barbares'—Emmanuel Macron attended a ceremony at the Élysée. The president planted a sessile oak in the palace gardens, a symbol of rooted memory, as Ilan means 'tree' in Hebrew.
In his speech, Macron lamented that 'the antisemitic hydra has not ceased to progress,' taking new forms such as Islamist antisemitism, that from the far left and far right, or under the mask of antisionism. He cited Islamist antisemitism behind the 'October 7 pogrom' in Israel, far-right clichés about Jewish power and wealth, and the rise in antisemitic acts since October 2023, multiplied by four between 2023 and 2024 according to the Interior Ministry.
Macron described current penalties against perpetrators of antisemitic acts as 'derisory' and announced that the government and Parliament will work to strengthen penalization. He proposes a 'mandatory ineligibility penalty' for elected officials guilty of 'antisemitic, racist, and discriminatory acts and statements,' calling them 'sentinels of the Republic.' To counter 'the poison of digital hate,' France will demand results from online platforms, resorting to European law for significant fines if commitments are not met.
Later, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu awarded the Ilan Halimi Prize to youth initiatives against antisemitism in several schools.
