Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld have called for a protest on Wednesday at a theatre in the western city of Nantes, where controversial comedian Dieudonne is due to perform the next day.
Dieudonne has been fined several times for defamation against the Jews, using insulting language, hate speech and racial discrimination, and a provocative arm gesture he makes, called the ‘’quenelle’’, which has been described as an upside down Nazi salute.
The gesture is said to represents Dieudonne’s anti-establishment views but people have been photographed making it in front of synagogues, Holocaust memorials and even at the Western Wall.
Dieudonne, 46, Paris-born son of a Cameroonian father and French mother, began his comedy career with a Jewish sidekick in the early 1990s and appeared in several films.
But over the years, he has gradually veered to the extreme-right and has started making anti-Jewish comments and joking about the Holocaust. ‘’His shows are political anti-Semitic rallies,’’ says lawyer Arno Klarsfeld, son of Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. ''He rallies anti-Semites from various origins,’’ he adds.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said he was exploring ways to legally prevent Dieudonne, whose full name is Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, from holding any performances.
Officials in several cities where Dieudonne is set to perform during a nationwide tour this month have also said they are trying to ban his show.
CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organizations in France, has called for a ‘’Republican mobilization’’ in every city where the comedian performs ‘’ to say no to anti-Semitic hatred, racism and xenophoby.’’
‘’These so-called shows are actually meetings where he preach hatred of Jews which is condemned by law,’’ the Jewish group says.
Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe has joined the Interior Minister in calling for Dieudonne to be banned from the stage. Speaking on Europe 1 radio, he likened Dieudonne to a criminal who “defends crimes against humanity”.