Anti-Semitism blamed for Paris murder

French Jewish community security sources have joined the family of murdered Paris Jew Ilan Halimi in blaming anti-Semitism for the killing.
“We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair,” Rafi, Ilan’s brother in law, told journalists.
"First because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews and secondly because of what they said on the phone. When we said we didn’t have 500,000 euros ($600 000) to give them they answered we should go to the synagogue and get it,” Rafi stressed.
“They also recited verses from the Koran. We didn’t know what they were saying but the police told us."
Ilan’s mother, Ruth, revealed to the press that the police told the family to ignore the gang’s attempts to contact them for five critical days, after which his son was found near death outside a city, 30 kilometres from Paris.
She also accused police of ignoring the anti-Semitic motivation of the murder in order not to alienate Muslims.
“If Ilan hadn’t been Jewish, he wouldn't have been murdered,” she said.
French daily Le Monde revealed that one of the people arrested told police that the gang had chosen “Jewish targets.”
But the Paris prosecutor said there was "so far no evidence of an anti-Semitic motive" and that the gang was apparently driven by money. Text messages and emails showing pictures of him, captive and blindfolded, had been sent to his family along with demands for a 400,000-euro ransom. According to the prosecutor, however, Halimi was tortured in scenes reminiscent of the abuse of prisoners at Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib jail. Naked prisoner Held prisoner in a Bagneux apartment, "naked, with his face covered," he was abused in "a repetition of scenes seen elsewhere", the prosecutor said. Marin also said the ringleader had repeated his ransom demands in a telephone call to Halimi’s family on Thursday, days after the young man’s body was found, threatening them with death unless they paid. Police quoted in the French press had questioned whether money was the real motive, one saying the gang appeared to playing a sadistic "game". The gang had lowered its ransom demands from 400,000 euros to 100,000 then dropping them as low as 5,000 euros, before it eventually broke off contact. The breakthrough in the investigation came on Thursday, when a young blonde woman turned herself in to police, saying she had recognized herself in a computer-generated portrait of a suspect circulated to the press. She confirmed that she had been asked to entice two young men, without knowing what they risked, but had failed to draw them in. The young women, who has also been detained, agreed to lead police to the other gang members. The gang’s method of using sex to lure in kidnap victims mirrors the plot of a 1990s French film, "L’Appat" (The Bait).

-----
Update
-----

Every year, the French Prime minister delivers his speech to some 800 invitees, France’s top political, social, religious, business, diplomatic and communal leaders. But this year, while statements about Hamas and Iran were expected to top the agenda, the atrocious murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish Parisian man, radically changed the priorities of the dinner meeting, Monday night, at the Pavillon d'Armenonville in Paris. “It is not a festive meeting. Never France has known such a grave moment of crisis. We must find solutions to live together and find again a fruitful dialogue beyond the differences,” chief rabbi of Paris, David Messas, told EJP. Writer Marek Halter claimed that “there is a real malaise about the dangerous relation people still make between Jews and money,” in a reference to information that Ilan Halimi’s kidnappers targeted Jews because they thought “that all Jews are rich.” Communal shockFrench Jews have been shocked by Halimi’s killing and suspicions of the anti-Semitic motivation of the perpetrators were confirmed by Prime minister Dominique de Villepin himself. Members of the Jewish community asked the representative body for a strong and clear stand at a march last Sunday in memory of the murdered man.This led the CRIF to ask for a “clear response” from the authorities during the dinner. “Is Ilan dead because he is Jewish? Mr Prime Minister you owe the truth to the country,” Roger Cukierman, the CRIF’s president, who attended Ilan Halimi’s burial last Friday, asked the guest of honour outright.An emotional Villepin responded that “all light has to be shed" on the odious and brutal murder of Halimi and declared that the judge investigating on the gang that kidnapped tortured and murdered the young phone salesman decided to retain the thesis of a racist crime.“Barbarous crime”“I want to tell Ilan’s family that all my thoughts go to them. I want them to know that we are going to do all what we can to arrest the authors of this barbarous crime and bring them to justice,” the Prime minister said. “Allow me to convey tonight a message to Ilan Halimi’s family and tell them how much I share their sorrow,” Villepin added. French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who attended the dinner, was due to meet Tuesday afternoon with Ilan Halimi’s family members and the CRIF leaders.News that the murder has had anti-Semitic motivations came as the reported number of anti-Semitic acts in France has sharply declined last year.“This evolution does not mean that the roots of evil have disappeared,” said Cukierman. “The level of anti-Semitic acts is seven times higher than six years ago,” he stressed. “It’s the result of the mobilisation of all,” Villepin said, hailing the determination of interior minister Sarkozy who, he said, “is particularly devoted to this fight.” “Fight against anti-Semitism is an absolute priority and a moral duty. It must help us build a society of the Republic and not of communities,” the Prime minister stressed.Villepin announced that Education minister Gilles de Robien will work out a « reference dossier » to help teachers and schools directors “who have to face with the scourge of anti-Semitism.”