CRIF, the representative umbrella body French Jewish organizations, has not allowed the family and fiancé of Lee Zeitouni, an Israeli girl killed in a hit-and-run car accident involving two French citizens, to attend its annual dinner despite their wish to use this opportunity to call for the two men to be extradited to Israel.
The dinner, a major political event, takes place Wednesday night in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as guest of honor.
The father of Lee Zeitouni, Itsik Zeitouni, and her fiancé, Roy Peled, who arrived in the French capital earlier this week, had expressed the wish to be present at the dinner in order to call for justice. "Our goal is to ask those who caused the death of Lee and the community where they live to take responsibility for this act," said the father.
The 25-year-old Lee Zeitouni, a gym professor, was hit by a car rented by two French tourists, Claude Issac Khayat and Eric Roubic, last September, while she was walking to her workplace in Tel Aviv.
The two men left the girl to die and immediately took the first flight to France in order to escape Israeli justice. The two countries don’t have an extradition agreement.
Since then, family and friends of Lee Zeitouni have been campaigning to get the two men brought to justice in Israel through demonstrations and contacts with personalities, including President Sarkozy's wife, Carla-Bruni Sarkozy.
Richard Prasquier , President of CRIF, explained his organization doesn’t want "the annual dinner to turn into a media event around this tragedy."
He said: "First we did not know that the parents of Lee Zeitouni were in Paris. Then it's through a French television sxtation that we ​​learned they were invited to the CRIF dinner although we had not issue such an invitation because we were not aware they were here.”
He stressed that changing the law was not part of the CRIF's mandate "no matter how painful the issue at hand."
Prasquier reportedly wrote a letter Itsik Zeitouni saying: "It is my obligation to prevent you from entering. If you decide to show up without being invited then I assure you that you shall bear the responsibility towards France, the French justice system, the French Jewish community and Israel and the memory of your precious Lee."
I told the family that I was ready to upset my schedule to spend all my time with them and try to see with them the best solution but they were not interested. All what they want is to call on Nicolas Sarkozy. But I'm sorry, it’s a court not the CRIF dinner that will settle this," Prasquier said.
"Do you see someone in Israel who would press the head of government or the President to tell them to ignore a Supreme Court decision? There is a separation of powers in our country. "
The president of CRIF insisted that the French judicial authority is an independent power. "French justice is waiting to do his job but it must receive a complaint filed by Israel. Either by the Israeli authorities or by the family. And now, no complaints have yet been filed. "
Two weeks ago, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe insisted that French law does not allow the two men to be extradited to Israel but said France's legal system would act with determination to bring the two men to justice.
"The French police and the courts have actively cooperated with the Israeli authorities to advance the investigation," he told members of the France-Israel Foundation.
"Our law does not allow us to extradite the suspects because of their French nationality, or to engage our own legal proceedings against them in France," Juppe said.
"We expect an appeal from Israel to the Israeli authorities or the filing of a complaint by the family in France to start this procedure, he added.