On April 4, 2017, exactly 9 years ago today, Sarah Halimi was murdered in France for being Jewish.
Sarah Halimi, 65, lived in Paris when her neighbor, Kobili Traoré, 27, broke into her apartment via the balcony. He brutally beat her until she lost consciousness, then tried to choke her. When he saw police officers in the courtyard below, he shouted that he wanted to kill himself, before throwing her out of the window. She lived on the third floor. Sarah did not survive.
During the attack, Traoré repeatedly shouted “Sheitan,” “Allahu Akbar,” and recited verses from the Quran. Afterward, he said he had “killed the sheitan of the neighborhood.”
He admitted he knew Sarah was Jewish. According to her brother, she had already been afraid of him after he called her a “dirty Jew.”
And yet, it took years for the antisemitic motive to be officially recognized. At first, French courts dismissed it, forcing Sarah’s family to fight relentlessly for the truth to be acknowledged.
As in the murders of Mireille Knoll and Sébastien Selam, the killer was portrayed as mentally ill by the press and authorities, to the benefit of the perpetrator. Traoré followed the same path, and once again, it worked.
He claimed he was not himself because he had smoked cannabis. Incredibly, this argument prevailed: instead of aggravating his responsibility, it led to him being declared not criminally responsible. Rather than prison, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he was later caught smoking again.
Sarah Halimi’s murder, and the way it was handled, will forever remain a stain on France’s justice system.
In France, a man can kill a Jew and avoid prison if he is high. That is the message this case sent to the Jewish community.
No wonder so many are making aliyah.
@HenMazzig
