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Footballer Nicholas Anelka under fire for 'making French anti-Semitic gesture' after scoring a goal
Written By JAK on Sunday, December 29, 2013 | 4:20 AM
Premiership star Nicolas Anelka's coach has stood by him after the striker made a 'racist' gesture today - saying claims that it was anti-Semitic are 'absolute rubbish'.
Anelka, 34, caused outrage by
performing a 'quenelle' to celebrate the first of his two goals for West Bromwich Albion during their 3-3 draw with West Ham at Upton Park.
The so-called 'reverse Nazi salute' involves touching the right shoulder with the left hand while keeping the right arm pointed downwards.
Anti-racism groups say it is regularly used to bait Jews.
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Gesture: Nicolas Anelka celebrates the first of his two goals against West Ham in the 3-3 draw
Racist or harmless? The gesture made by West Brom striker Nicolas Anelka after scoring his first goal
France's sports minister took to Twitter tonight to condemn the Anelka's behaviour. Valerie Fourneyron said: 'Anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred have no place on a football field'
It was popularised by the firebrand comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala - who is a friend of Anelka - and French authorities have been debating whether his performances should be banned.
But West Brom coach Keith Downing said former French international Anelka was 'totally surprised' by the furore he had provoked.
'Racist': Comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, who has been fined several times for defaming Jews
'I'm aware of it but it has got nothing to do what is being said,' Downing replied when asked about the gesture.
'It
is dedicated to a French comedian he knows very, very well. He uses it
in his act and I think speculation can be stopped now, it is absolute
rubbish really.
'He is totally unaware of what the problems were or the speculation that has been thrown around, he is totally surprised by it.'
An undated photo circulated on Twitter claims to show Anelka, a practicing Muslim, and 47-year-old Dieudonne making the gesture together.
It comes after French Interior Minister Manuel
Valls said yesterday that he was considering banning Dieudonne's upcoming shows because they
regularly attack the memory of Holocaust victims.
'Dieudonne has been repeatedly convicted for defamation, insulting behaviour and incitement to racial hatred,' said Mr Valls.
'This is a repeat offender and I intend to act with the greatest firmness, under the law,' Mr Valls added.
More
than 70,000 French Jews died during the Second World War, and Dieudonne
has been fined in France six times for defaming Jews.
In 2008 he was fined the
equivalent of just over £6,000 for describing Holocaust remembrance
as 'memorial pornography'.
The comedian insists that the gesture is anti-establishment, not anti-Semitic.
Friends: West Brom acting head coach Keith Downing says that the gesture was a dedication from Anelka (right) to his French comedian friend Dieudonne (left)
GESTURE THAT SHOCKED FRANCE
Dieudonne calls the gesture 'la quenelle' - the word for an elongated creamed fish dumpling - and says it stands for his anti-Zionist and anti-establishment views, not anti-Semitism.
The gesture has gone viral on social media recently, with mostly young fans displaying it at parties and sports events. Some do it while in the audience at live television shows.
Two soldiers were sanctioned by the army in September for making the gesture in uniform in front of a Paris synagogue.
When Radio France's Patrick Cohen asked on air last week if the media should pay so much attention to him, Dieudonne suggested the journalist should get ready to emigrate.
'When I hear Patrick Cohen speaking, I say to myself, you see, the gas chambers ... too bad,' he said.
However, Mr Valls added: 'Dieudonne M'bala M'bala doesn't seem to recognise any limits anymore.
'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
unacceptable way.'
The
'quenelle' is a key component of the Dieudonne act, and he has himself
threatened to sue those who object to it.
Dieudonne is particularly critical of Israel's occupation of Palestine territories.
A Paris-born son of a
Cameroonian father and French mother, he began his comedy career with a
Jewish sidekick in the early 1990s and appeared in several films.
Originally
active with anti-racist left-wing groups, he began openly criticizing
Jews and Israel in 2002 and ran in the European elections two years
later with a pro-Palestinian party.
Police broke
up his one-man-show in a Brussels theatre last year for suspected
anti-Semitic hate speech, but he was not convicted.
France's sports minister took to Twitter tonight to condemn the Anelka's behaviour.
Valerie Fourneyron said: 'Anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred have no place on a football field.'
Roger
Cukierman, president of the Paris-based council of French Jewish
organisations, the CRIF, said of the comedian: 'It's the Nazi salute in reverse. Very
clearly, Mr Dieudonne is developing a nearly professional anti-Semitism
under the cover of telling jokes.'
Doubling up: Anelka (left) is on the spot to score West Brom's second goal of the afternoon
Anelka could face punishment in France if his actions can be shown to be offensive, insulting, abusive or political.
Almost all English Premiership games are shown live in France, where Paris-born Anelka is a household name.
France
has experienced rising levels of violence against its Jewish population
in recent years. In March 2012, a rabbi and three students were killed
at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
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