Anti-Semitism Hijacks French Play, Norwegian Painting

Flooded with daily angry calls, Olympia management called off Dieudonne’s show on safety grounds.

Last December, Dieudonne performed a sketch on Channel 3 featuring a "Nazi rabbi" advising Moroccan youths in the Paris suburbs to embrace Judaism in order to join "the U.S.-Zionist axis of good".

He was referring to the axis of evil, in which the U.S. bracketed Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and Washington’s blind support to Israel against Palestinians.

A number of Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed that the growing number of Muslims in Europe "could endanger life of Jews there" – an allegation vehemently repudiated by Muslims.

As part of the sketch, Dieudonne also addressed the audience with a "hi Israel" salute, which Jewish protesters said was reminiscent of the infamous "hi Hitler."

Ridiculing the charges, Dieudonne said the sketch was meant as a criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s policies toward Palestinians.

Acknowledging the sketch was rather satirical, the comedian stressed that criticizing Israel’s policy – which he said based on a violation of human rights – could not be synonymous with anti-Semitism.

Victim

Dieudonne, of a Cameroonian father and a French mother, complained of being the victim of radical Jews in the country.

He insisted that he parodies various religious, political and ethnic groups in a humorous way but without malice.

Earlier this month, some 150 demonstrators protested in front of a theater where Dieudonne was performing in the southern city of Lyon.

Two of the audience were injured after someone released tear gas during the performance.

But the audience ignored the scare, insisting on resuming the show.

The cancellation coincided with an official visit to France by Israeli President Moshe Katsav who was greeted with protests over Israel’s construction of a separation wall in the West Bank despite world opposition.

Swastika

In another similar incident, a Norwegian gallery removed a painting from an exhibition designed to challenge anti-Semitism after the Israeli ambassador said it offended Jews.

The controversy centered on a red-and-white picture, entitled Anti-Semite in the Name of God, that contains the words "USA" and "Israel" with the letter-S in both replaced by a swastika, reported the BBC News Online Friday.

Israel’s Ambassador to Norway Liora Hertzl said it was unacceptable to link Israel and the United States to Nazism.

The artist, Chris Reddy, accused the diplomat of using the fascists’ own tool, censorship.

Reddy defended his painting, saying his art challenged the most important source of conflict in the world, nationalism, adding that "totalitarian and extreme regimes can’t tolerate criticism".

Jewish leaders in the United States had claimed that Mel Gibson’s new movie "Passion for the Christ" would fuel anti-Semitism, while conservative Christians have praised it as a moving depiction of Christ’s death.

Gibson, who produced, directed and co-wrote the film, has said repeatedly that he is not anti-Semitic and that the project was a deeply personal expression of his own faith.

Last month, a diplomatic row erupted in neighboring Sweden when the Israeli ambassador was kicked out of the National Gallery of Antiquities after vandalizing a work of art, saying it was a terrible insult to the Israeli people.

The work’s Israeli-born creator rejected the charge, saying the work had a message of openness and conciliation.

What Is Anti-Semitism

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, anti-Semitism is hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group.

It was coined in 1879 by German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time.

However, Richard Levy, a professor of History in Chicago, told IslamOnline.net the term is often misused when Jews and others "refuse to see any difference between criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism".

"Anti-Semitic charges are sometimes employed to stifle objections to anything the Israelis want to do or have done."

Sharon accused Europeans in general and Muslims in particular of anti-Semitism after a poll by the EU Commission survey disclosed that some 59 per cent of Europeans believe Israel is more dangerous than North Korea and Iran.