“Small museum for peace. This is the title of the project carried out by the pupils of a class of CM1 and CM2 of the elementary school Joliot-Curie, in Bagneux (92), and which earned them this week the prize of the jury of the fifth edition of the Ilan-Halimi Prize. An eponymous prize in tribute to the 23-year-old young man, tortured to death in 2006 and become the symbol of anti-Semitic hatred, which since 2018 has rewarded collectives, school or not, who have carried out “an action contributing to the reduction of racist prejudices and anti-Semites” in the words of the Ministry of Culture.
“The idea was to train tolerant adults,” explains Elsa Bouteville, the teacher who organized and supervised the first participation of the Bagneux school in the competition. “It was also an opportunity to talk about this tragedy with the children, to remember that anti-Semitism is something that still exists. And that, behind Ilan’s story, there are several: that of the Jews, the Holocaust, and religions. »
On the initiative of the pupils, an exhibition space was therefore set up in a school room, within the Pierre-Plate housing estate where Ilan Halimi was sequestered in 2006. With on the walls of this “little museum”, thirty works produced by 24 children (quotes, collages, drawings, etc.) to evoke Ilan Halimi, peace, the fight against racism and anti-Semitism. There is also a wall dedicated to secularism, French and Algerian flags evoking colonization arranged around a “table of fraternity”, or a fresco around the dove of peace by street artist Banksy.
Visits were made to the parents of students and residents by the schoolchildren themselves, for two months last year. An investment particularly noticed by the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, who hand-delivered the reward to five of the schoolchildren, hailing “a beautiful lesson in hope”.
“It sends a positive message for young people in the suburbs”
“She would like the museum to be reopened,” reports the professor. “It is also the first time that an elementary school has been rewarded. They made a derogation, she says proudly. It is a price that is all the more symbolic since the school is just behind the scene of the tragedy. Somehow, justice has been served. »
The teacher and five students were invited to the Ministry of Justice this Monday, February 13, the anniversary of the death of Ilan Halimi, to receive their Jury Prize, in the presence of the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupont-Moretti, the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye and the Minister Delegate in charge of Equal Opportunities and Diversity, Isabelle Rome. “It sends a positive message for young people in the suburbs, it’s hyper-rewarding,” welcomes Elsa Bouteville.
“Because of course success is possible,” she says. For her part, the mayor of Bagneux, Marie-Hélène Amiable (PCF), expressed “a lot of emotion and great pride” for the awarding of this prize.
Two other schools, Angerville (Essonne) and Saint Amand Montrond (Cher), received the Jury Prize. The Grand Prize was awarded to the school center in the minors’ quarter of the Liancourt penitentiary center (Oise).
The five students and their teacher were then received at Matignon the following day, Tuesday, before continuing with a visit to the National Assembly, then to the Shoah Memorial, in Paris.
