A Jewish human rights group has called on NBA star Tony Parker to apologize for his past use of the “quenelle” gesture which has been described as “the Nazi salute in reverse” and is considered to be anti-Semitic.
The call comes a day after French soccer star Nicolas Anelka ignited a furor over his use of the same gesture, called the ‘’quenelle’’ and created by French controversial comedian Dieudonne, after scoring a goal for the English soccer club West Bromwich Albion.
Calling Parker’s use of the gesture “disgusting and dangerous” and, saying that the star was “mainstreaming anti-Semitic hate,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), said that Parker should, “apologize for his use of the quenelle ‘Nazi’ salute.”
“As a leading sports figure on both sides of the Atlantic, Parker has a special moral obligation to disassociate himself from a gesture that the government of France has identified as anti-Semitic,” Cooper told The Algemeiner.
Representatives for the NBA, and Parker’s team the San Antonio Spurs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The “quenelle” has been used by followers of Dieudonne in front of Nazi concentration camps, synagogues and even when standing beside unsuspecting Jews.
“It’s the Nazi salute in reverse,” Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, said. “Very clearly, Mr Dieudonné is developing a nearly professional anti-Semitism under the cover of telling jokes.”
Last week, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, said that his ministry was looking for legal ways to ban Dieudonne’s public racist and anti-Semitic shows.
“Dieudonné M’bala M’bala doesn’t seem to recognize any limits any more,” Valls said. “From one comment to the next, as he has shown in several television shows, he attacks the memory of Holocaust victims in an obvious and unbearable way.”
Dieudonné’s film, “The Anti-Semite,” was banned from the Cannes Film Festival last year. He has openly supported former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s offensive views on Israel and the Jewish people, and has described Holocaust remembrance as ''memorial pornography''.
He has also created words and other gestures that are designed to be offensive to Jews.
After his use of the “quenelle” last Saturday, French soccer star Nicolas Anelka, who is friendly with Dieudonne, said that his decision to use the hateful gesture was a tribute to his friend.
“This gesture was just a special dedication to my comedian friend Dieudonné,” Anelka tweeted.
The move was sharply criticized by French leaders.
France’s Minister for Sport, Valerie Fourneyron, tweeted that, “Anelka’s gesture is a shocking and disgusting provocation. Anti-semitism or incitement to hatred has no place on the football field.”