A young Jewish man from Djerba, the late Eyal Haddad, was barbarically murdered in a town northeast of Paris by his Muslim neighbor about ten days ago. The victim's body was found in the forest recently, following the killer's confession that he murdered him because he was Jewish.
The chief rabbi in Tunis and member of the Conference of Rabbis of Europe, Rabbi Haim Bitan said on Tuesday: "We were shocked to hear about the murder of our hometown boy in Djerba, Eyal ben Michael Haddad, who was murdered by a criminal in France. We ask the French government to prosecute the murderer according to the severity of the law and to conduct a transparent investigation and the prosecution of the despicable murderer, in order to prevent more cases like these."
Rabbi Moshe Levin, senior advisor to France's Chief Rabbi and a member of the Conference of European Rabbis told the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the authorities have investigated the matter and that it's not antisemitic.
Yet social media posts have displayed the alleged assassin burning the flag of Israel.
Alors que le cirque autour de la viande fait la Une, un Juif a de nouveau été assassiné en France. Voilà l’une des photos FB de son meurtrier. Que lumière soit faite vite et que l’information soit traitée à sa juste valeur. L’antisémitisme est l’affaire de tous. #EyalHaddad pic.twitter.com/OoEI63rBut
— Marion Bernard (@MarionBernardM) August 30, 2022
What do we know so far?
According to i24NEWS, the suspect allegedly said that the victim, who possibly lived in the same flat, owed him 100 euros and had not returned them, then confessed that he killed him because he was Jewish.
"According to our information, the assassin smashed his victim's skull with an ax, then he burned his face and even began to bury the body. He turned himself into the police,” the BNVCA statement said.
“The BNVCA is closely interested in this case, asks that the facts be examined by considering the antisemitic character and by not dismissing it as a priori,” the statement continued.
'It doesn't seem like an antisemitic attack," a senior figure in a large Jewish Organization told the Post on Monday regarding the murder of Haddad. According to the official, Jewish leadership has been informed about this murder for at least a week and they are in touch with law enforcement.
"We're pushing at the moment for the authorities to understand if this is actually an antisemitic murder or rather just a fight between friends," he said and added that it seems as though the attack has to do with "interpersonal relationship. The two knew each other very well."
The official assured that his organization is in constant contact with the Interior Ministry in France. "If it is a murder with an antisemitic motive, we would like to know, but if it wasn't - we also need to know," he said. He added that "it's been three months with three Jews being killed in weird situations in France, so we need to understand if there is a reason behind these terrible situations."