JEWISH AGENCY FOR ISRAEL-PRESS RELEASE
www.jewishagency.org
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007

The remains of Ilan Halimi, murdered in Paris last year in a vicious
antisemitic attack, will be reburied in Jerusalem on Friday.

On the special initiative of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the remains of
the late Ilan Halimi, a young Jew murdered last year in Paris in an
antisemitic attack, will be reinterred in Jerusalem this Friday, February
9th 2007at 11:30am.

Halimi will be buried in a special section of the Givat Shaul cemetery in
Jerusalem exactly one year after his burial in France according to the
Jewish calendar.

The 23-year old Ilan Halimi was brutally murdered on February 13, 2006, "Tu
B'Shvat" according to the Jewish calendar, by a gang of Muslim immigrants.
He was kidnapped and tortured for three weeks solely because he was Jewish.
The murder shocked the Jewish community of France, numbering 500,000, as
well as numerous citizens and leaders of France.

Ilan Halimi's remains will arrive in Israel from Paris on an El Al flight on
Thursday February 8th. Accompanying the coffin will be his mother, Ruth
Halimi, his two sisters Yael and Anne-Laure and other family members. David
Roche, head of the Jewish Agency's delegation in France, will accompany the
family.

The burial service will take place on Friday February 9th at 11:30am at the
Sephardi Burial Home on the Har Ha-Menuchot cemetery in Givat Shaul,
Jerusalem. Addressing the service will be the Chairman of the Jewish Agency
Zeev Bielski, Rishon LeZion(Sephardi Chief Rabbi) Rabbi Shlomo Amar, France's
Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk, French Ambassador to Israel Jean-Michel Casa and
the President of the European Jewish Congress Pierre Besnainou.
Subsequently, the burial will take place on the southern slope of the
cemetery in bloc 34, section A, row 5, plot 4.

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski said: "The reburial of Ilan
Halimi in Israel is the closing of a Zionist circle. The family's decision
to tie their fate with the State of Israel, especially in such tragic
circumstances, is a message clearly felt, one which expresses the unity of
the Jewish People. The hideous murder, motivated solely by antisemitism, is
emblazoned in the heart of the Jewish people, the State of Israel and the
Jewish Agency, which has placed as a goal the struggle against this
repugnant manifestation of hatred which is raising its ugly head around the
world."

The media is invited to cover the burial service.