Air France has become entangled in the debate on the controversial 'quenelle' salute after airline’s senior employees were spotted making the gesture, a reverse Nazi salute, which has been labeled anti-Semitic.
According to French daily newspaper Liberation, the employees made the controversial “quenelle” salute at a union rally in support of a Swissport strike.
In a picture taken on November 8, and publicized by the newspaper David Ricatte, secretary and spokesman of the CGT-Air France Communist union, Pascal Belrose, one of the division secretaries, and Laurent Dahyot, member of the executive board of the union are shown joyfully using the gesture which has been popularized by anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala.
In a statement, the management of Air France condemned the salute, sait it was ‘’extremely shocked’’ and promised 'to take appropriate actions'.
In a separate statement, Ricatte defended his actions, maintaining that the gesture had no racial or religious connotations, but before it was publicized as a anti-Semitic move in December, was merely a fashionable anti-establishment sign.
However, earlier in January, Ricatte posted on his personal Twitter account a dubbed version of the scene of Adolf Hitler in “Downfall” in which Hitler is a parodied version of French Interior Minister Manuel Valls condemning the quenelle.
Dieudonne, who has been convicted several times for inciting racial hatred through his anti-Semitic jokes and comments, has been banned from entering Britain after several of his shows were cancelled in France.
Dieudonne had said he would travel to Britain to support his friend, footballer Nicolas Anelka, who is facing a disciplinary hearing after performing a "quenelle" during a Premier League match with West Bromwich Albion.
The Home Office on Monday declared Dieudonne ‘’persona non grata’’and warned he will not be allowed into the country.
The Home Office has sent out a warning to airlines and other transport companies as well as border officials, that he is an "excluded" individual.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
"We can confirm that Mr Dieudonné is subject to an exclusion order. The home secretary will seek to exclude an individual from the UK if she considers that there are public policy or public security reasons to do so," a spokesperson for Britain’s Interior Ministry said.
Several of Dieudonné's shows were banned in France last month at the start of a 22-date tour amid fears that his stereotypical portrait of Jews and mocking of the Holocaust were a risk to public order.