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Hundreds protest at French embassy in Tel Aviv over Halimi murder ruling

The demonstration follows a French appeals court decision that the Muslim who murdered his Jewish neighbor while shouting “Allahu Akbar” wasn’t responsible for his actions due to cannabis consumption.

Protesters gather at the French embassy in Tel Aviv to demand justice for Sarah Halimi, who was murdered in 2017 by her Muslim neighbor in Paris, April 25, 2021. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.
Protesters gather at the French embassy in Tel Aviv to demand justice for Sarah Halimi, who was murdered in 2017 by her Muslim neighbor in Paris, April 25, 2021. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the French embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday in solidarity with the large-scale demonstration held in Paris to demand justice for Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old French Jew who was murdered in her home in 2017 by a Muslim neighbor.

The demonstration, which was joined by a smaller protest in Jerusalem, as well as others around France, came after the French Court of Cassation’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a 2019 ruling by a lower tribunal that the perpetrator—27-year-old Kobili Traoré, who screamed Allahu Akbar (“God is great”) and recited Koranic verses before murdering Halimi—was not responsible for his actions.

According to both rulings, Traore, now 32 and who currently resides in a psychiatric facility, was in a delusional state at the time of the murder due to heavy cannabis consumption.

More than 20,000 took part in Sunday’s demonstration in Paris, while an additional 2,000 marched in Marseille and 600 protested outside of a synagogue in Strasbourg, i24News reported.

“We already have demonstrated that hate and hateful acts are not going to be tolerated, and so if we could even take it a step further to define antisemitism and what that is like, then I want to be able to take that,” Jeannette Sánchez-Palacios told JNS.
The IDF said it would continue to operate in the security zone in accordance with the ceasefire agreement with Beirut.
City Hall is making “a mockery of open government, at least when it comes to the administration’s relationship with the Jewish community,” attorney Jack Lester told JNS.
‘I’m never going to forget this davening, two days or three days before Yom Kippur, where we’re again saying, ‘We’re here,’” Rabbi Haskel Lookstein told JNS.