The CRIF in action
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Published on 5 February 2004

COMEDIAN CHARGED FOR ANTI-SEMITIC SHOW

The Paris Prosecutor decided to press charges against a French stand-up comedian who appeared on a live show on a French state-run channel dressed as an Orthodox Jew. Comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala raised his arm in a Nazi-like salute and shouted "Isra-heil".



During what was supposed to be an improvised short sketch, the comedian lashed out against Israel, and ironically called on the Arab youth in France to join the "American-Zionist axis". The show's MC, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, a Jew, apologized after the broadcast, saying that things got out of hand. The channel released a written apology.

CRIF protested immediately and asked for sanctions. Dieudonné is accused of racial defamation in public. Following this broadcast, most of the theatres where he was slated to appear cancelled his show.

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