French anti-Semitic entertainer banned from U.K.
The Guardian notes that followers of Dieudonné have posted photographs of themselves doing the quenelle outside synagogues, Holocaust memorials, Jewish schools, and even at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Dieudonné’s anti-Semitism has developed into a denial of the Holocaut. In 2006, he invited Robert Faurisson, a French historian who has repeatedly denied the existence of the Holocaust, on stage. In the same year, he began appearing in public with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the far-right National Front and the father of the Front’s current leader, Marine le Pen.
Le Pen and Dieudonné made for strange comrades: Le Pen’s strident immigrant bashing and unabashed racism were his political stock-in-trade. Dieudonné is the son of an immigrant from Cameroon and a French mother. In1998, when France hosted to Soccer World Cup (which it won in a 3:0 victory over Brazil), and in 2000, when France won the European Soccer Cup (defeating Italy 2:1), Le Pen refused to support the French national soccer team, declaring that too many of its players were black or Muslims, and thus not “true” French. France “cannot recognise itself in the national side,” Le Pen said, adding that. “maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion of players of color and should have been a bit more careful.”
Still, antipathy toward Jews united the two, and Le Pen, who once referred to the Holocaust as “détail de l’histoire” (a detail of history), has been one of Dieudonné’s most vocal supporters.
The document outlining the ban on Dieudonné was leaked to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. It states that the 47-year-old comic “should not be carried to the UK.” The document warned transport carriers they faced a fine of up to £10,000 if they allow him to travel to Britain.
“The above-named has been excluded from the U.K. at the direction of the secretary of state on 31 January 2014. Carriers required to provide data to e-Borders will be refused authority to carry him to the U.K. He is not eligible for carriage. If he travels he will be denied entry at the UK border.”
Manuel Valls, the French interior minister who encouraged municipalities to ban Dieudonné’s shows, said the entertainer was no longer artistic or funny, but engaged in the “mechanics of hate”: “Je sais faire la différence entre les génies de l’humour” et “les petits entrepreneurs de la haine” (“I know the difference between the genius of humor” and “the small entrepreneurs of hate”), Valls said, adding: “Il s’agit de haine, d’antisémitisme, d’apologie de la Shoah. L’obsession de ce personnage, c’est la haine du Juif” (“It is the hatred, the anti-Semitism, the apology for the Holocaust. The obsession of this person is the hatred of Jews”).
“We cannot tolerate anti-Semitism, historical revisionism and racism, and the highest jurisdiction in our country has agreed,” Valls said.
During a recent performance, Dieudonné talked about one of his critics, the Jewish journalist Patrick Cohen. To the roaring laughter of his followers in the packed hall, Dieudonné said: “Quand je l’entends parler, Patrick Cohen, je me dis, tu vois, les chambres à gaz… Dommage” (“When I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I tell myself, you know, the gas chambers … a pity”).
Dieudonné has been fined several times for his racist remarks, but refused to pay the fines imposed on him, saying he was bankrupt. On 29 January police searched his home and found €650,000 and $15,000 in cash hidden in a cabinet. He is now facing charges of “fraudulent organization of bankruptcy.”
— Read more in Alexander Stille, “The Case of Dieudonné: A French Comedian’s Hate,” New Yorker (10 january 2014); and Andrew Hussey, “Dieudonné’s war on France: the Holocaust comedian who isn’t funny,” New Statesman (30 January 2014)
