Abduction, Torture and Murder: The Story of Ilan Halimi
"If you’re Jewish, odds are right now that your first thoughts are about the Israeli hostages and their families. I could not stop thinking about them throughout the entire film."
By Michael Golden
Nineteen years ago today, the tortured and beaten body of a young man named Ilan Halimi was spotted along the side of a road in a suburb of Paris, France. Ilan was barely alive when the ambulance arrived. After 24 days of captivity, and no food for two weeks, his kidnappers soaked him in bleach to erase their fingerprints, threw his body into the woods, and set him on fire.
Ilan was just 23 years old and living with his mother and two sisters when this happened. A band of criminals called the “Gang of Barbarians” abducted Ilan because he was Jewish and they thought his family was rich. They were not.
After three weeks of police investigation, the clock ran out. Ilan didn’t make it. Following the ambulance ride, he was pronounced dead at Cochin Hospital in the burn victims ward. Sixty percent of his skin had been scorched.
At the time, the French police had persuaded Ilan’s parents to not go public with the investigation or to try to raise money for the ransom. The Ivory Coast African leader of the gang had told Ilan’s father “go and get it from your synagogue.” He later called a rabbi in the community and did the same, saying “we’ve got a Jew.”
Also at the time, the French police refused to acknowledge the antisemitic motivation for the kidnapping. Ilan’s mother, Ruth Halimi, wrote a book in 2009 entitled 24 days: The Truth About the Death of Ilan Halimi. In it, she and coauthor Émilie Frèche explained that “by denying the antisemitic character… the police did not figure out the profile of the gang” (which had previously targeted other Jews).
On Friday, July 19, 2006, 24 defendants who were in or affiliated with the gang were convicted of murder, kidnapping and various other crimes. The ringleader animal of the group, who shouted antisemitic epithets during the trial, was sentenced to life. Ilan’s parents were not in the courtroom that day. It was the Sabbath.
Even French prosecutors refused to assert that antisemitism was to blame — until enough people spoke up. Finally French authorities officially announced that anti-semitism was “an aggravating circumstance.”
In a 2009 interview following the release of her book, Ruth Halimi said that she wrote it to “alert public opinion to the danger of antisemitism which has returned in other forms, so that a story like this can never happen again.”
Exactly one year after Ilan was laid to rest, two trees commemorating his death were vandalized, along with other local Jewish entities in Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois. Ruth decided to move Ilan to Jerusalem. There he was reburied in Givat Shaul cemetery. She didn’t want anyone else to ever attack her son again.
I did not know of Ilan Halimi’s story until this week, when I read an entry from Dust and Stars, a Jewish history publication created by a partner of ours at JEWDICIOUS, Steven Drucker.
As I started to read more about Ilan, I decided to watch the 2015 film 24 Days. For some reason, even with all we’re seeing in real-time with the 73 hostages still being held in Hamas captivity, I felt obligated to watch the film. Nineteen years to the day after the moment of his death, I felt compelled. I knew it would make my skin crawl, and it did. I must have checked the timecode in the corner about a half dozen times to see how many minutes were left.
But beyond the sheer horror of what Ilan endured because he was Jewish, it also made me think about what’s happening today. Ruth Halimi spoke out and warned the world of “the danger of antisemitism which has returned in other forms.” So many voices have bravely conveyed that lesson. Yet the hatred persists.
If you’re Jewish right now, odds are that your first thought is about the Israeli hostages and their families. I could not stop thinking about them throughout the entire film.
But in the wake of the ineffable massacre and abductions committed by Hamas — 495 days ago — we can see what other increases in antisemitism it has wrought:
An ADL survey of 58,000 people in 103 counties revealed that 46% of the world’s population hold antisemitic views — double the proportion from the first survey conducted 10 years ago.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) recently reported that nearly four out of 10 adults in the U.S. say that they have “personally seen or heard antisemitism in the last 12 months.”
AJC also reports that 32% of American Jewish college students report having experienced antisemitism on campus.
In France, antisemitic incidents jumped from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023 — with 74% occurring after October 7.
There have been so many heinous antisemitic acts committed in Australia in recent months that the government has increased the police assigned to specifically address crimes against Jews.
There’s a lot more. And within this sea of negativity, there are also some glimmers of good news about attitudes toward Jews — but that is not the story for today. Not right now. Not from me anyway (though you can find it in this AJC Report).
The sad truth, borne out by history and leading right up to this minute, is that antisemitism never goes away. It is always either lurking around the corner or right there in our face. And it must always be fought.
There are a whole lot of non-Jewish folks who read JEWDICIOUS and appreciate the perspectives we bring to them. I know because they contact me. Jews are not alone; we have so many friends who are on our side. We are grateful. And we will all keep fighting the hate together.
There is no other choice.
MICHAEL GOLDEN is the Editor-In-Chief of JEWDICIOUS and founder of The Golden Mean.
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As always, you did grab my attention. My heart hurts for the family to have to move their son to Isael so that his grave is safe. There are no words vile enough to describe what Hamas has done to all the Israelis.
You are not alone. Not Jewish and with you all the way.