French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has strongly condemned the cutting down of a memorial tree dedicated to Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man who was tortured and murdered in 2006. The olive tree, planted in 2011 outside Paris, was destroyed earlier this week in what officials and community leaders are calling an act of anti-Semitic hatred.

Bayrou emphasized that such crimes cannot erase memory and reaffirmed the importance of fighting against hatred. The incident has sparked outrage within the French Jewish community, with local authorities filing a formal complaint and highlighting the targeted nature of the act. The tree had served as a symbol of remembrance for Halimi, whose murder remains a painful chapter in France's history.