Posted on 12/25/2003 7:20:19 AM PST by knighthawk
PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris prosecutor has launched an inquiry into a controversial TV sketch by a French comedian which many say was anti-Semitic.
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala appeared wearing guerrilla clothing and a Jewish skullcap and made a Nazi salute in the live show on France 3 television on December 1.
As he made the salute he invited "youths watching today from suburban high-rises to join the American-Zionist axis." He then cried "IsraHeil," in an apparent reference to the "Heil Hitler" salute of Nazi Germany.
"The sketch and the words in question seem capable of constituting defamation of a racial character," Paris prosecutor Yves Bot said in a statement on Wednesday.
The preliminary inquiry could lead to prosecution for "racial defamation."
The CSA broadcasting watchdog in France, where there is concern about sporadic anti-Semitic attacks, has also asked France 3 for an explanation.
Dieudonne, born in the Paris suburbs to a French mother and a Cameroonian father, has previously landed in trouble after saying he "preferred Osama bin Laden's charisma to that of President Bush."
The presenter of the December 1 program, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, apologized to viewers the following week.
One of France's most popular comedians, Jamel Debbouze, who is Moroccan-born and a friend of Dieudonne, told the daily Liberation this week that the sketch was regrettable.
"His sketch was stupid and inappropriate. The last thing we need is to throw oil on the fire," he said.
Dieudonne, however, has demanded an apology from France 3, saying the channel has wrongly accused him of anti-Semitism.
Jewish lobby groups are concerned that what they see as biased views of Israel's treatment of Palestinians are whipping up anti-Semitism across Europe.
France, which is home to around five million Muslims and 600,000 Jews, is keen to maintain its secular status and is currently pushing for a highly controversial ban on overt religious symbols like Islamic veils and Jewish skullcaps in schools.
In another ten years it will be fifteen million Muslims. France is doomed along with the rest of continental western Europe.
Notice, how people in the entertainment industry, who parade their outright hatred of President Bush on a daily basis, always whine for an apology when someone said the least thing disagreeable about them. It's okay for them to say that the war is based on a lie, in order to get oil in exchange for military lives, but don't dare hint that they are anti-Semitic or unpatriotic.
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