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SWC Commends Facebook and Instagram for Banning Dieudonne – But French Court Penalties Never Enforced

“In over 20 trials for defamation, hate speech and endorsing terrorism, he has hardly paid fines or other penalties...Facebook and Instagram are 'better later than never,' but now the Courts must enforce justice against the leading hatemonger of France.”

Paris – “The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has monitoredDieudonné M’Bala M’Bala for over twenty years, since his extreme-left anti-racist beginnings as stand-up comedian with his Jewish partner, Elie Semoun, to his running, in 2004, for EuropeanParliament elections on the far-left Euro-Palestine ticket, to his heading the far-right Anti-Zionist Party in 2009... he failed in both... until his unique position today as a bridge betweenextreme-left and extreme-right and between Sunni and Shi’ah groups in Europe,” stated Dr.Shimon Samuels, the Centre’s Director for International Relations.

Among Dieudonné’s closest friends have been National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson andformer antisemitic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From the stage of his theatre, La Main d’Or (The Golden Hand), he has played an Israeli soldier and ultra-OrthodoxChassid shouting “Isra-heil,” regaled by the “Shoahnanas” troupe (Holocaust girls).

In his film, “L’Antisémite” (The Antisemite), with Faurisson, Dieudonné is berated by his screen wife for “Jewobsession” and sent to a psychiatrist. He discovers that the shrink and his wife are both Jewish – “thus confirming the conspiracy theory,” continued Samuels.

He is best known for inventing the “quenelle” inverted Nazi salute, as a universal greeting between antisemites. He has dubbed“Holocaust commemoration” as “memorial pornography,” and – while France responded in horror to the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical publication and theJewish Hyper Cacher supermarket – he disgustingly announced in defiance, “Je suis Charlie Coulibally” (“I am Charlie Coulibally”) – Amedy Coulibaly was the lead murderer in thekosher supermarket.

Dieudonné's ties with Jihadi terrorism were displayed in his August 2006 visit to Lebanon, in support of Hezbollah, during theIsraeli action against the terror movement.

Nick-named “the French Louis Farrakhan,” one opinion poll revealed that 16% of the French adult public (approximately 4 millioncitizens) 'regard Deudonné positively.'”

Dieudonné has been convicted in over 20 cases for defamation, hate speech and endorsing terrorism. Yet for his theatre show of the“Sieg Heil - Isra-heil” outrage, the judge ruled that “this was not an attack against Jews in general, but against a type of person distinguished by their political views” (see: “French comic'not antisemite'” BBC, 7 May 2004).

In most other cases, he has not paid the fine, pleading poverty (though he was heavily condemned for tax evasion in 2012 and is againpending trial for fraud and money laundering).

“We commend Facebook and Instagram for their ‘better late than never’ action. Now the Courts must enforce justice against thsleading antisemitic hate propagandist of France,” concluded Samuels.


For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 147 237 637, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter,or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewishhuman rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council ofEurope and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).



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