On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the Varia Theatre in Brussels has invited Dieudonné to perform his latest one man show "Dieudonné et son best of" from 2 to 11 October.JTA has this on Dieudonné :
"A Paris appeals court upheld charges against a French comedian for making anti-Semitic remarks.
The court on Thursday fined Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, known as Dieudonné, nearly $11,000 [€ 7,000] for referring to Holocaust remembrance as "memorial pornography" at a news conference following a performance in Algeria in February 2005.
At the same conference, he spoke of the "Zionist lobby, which cultivates the uniqueness of suffering" to the detriment of others.
Dieudonné has long been the center of controversy in France for his repeated anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish statements and stand-up shows.
The comedian has been quoted as saying that "Zionism is the AIDS of Judaism," and in a 2004 interview he said that "those Jews who criticize me are all former slave merchants who now control the media and the banks.""
He is also reported, among other things, as having said:
"Racism was created by Abraham. The 'Chosen People' [is] the beginning of racism. Muslims today are just answering back." "
"Anti-Semitism does not exist because the Jews do not exist.... In my opinion, the Jews are a sect, a rip-off."
"Sanitary cordon" and double-standards
Dieudonné has links with France's far right National Front (FN), and has developed a close friendship with its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen ... who is also his daughter's godfather.
The theatre's choice is dismaying because Belgian French-speaking élites have been operating for several years a strict "sanitary cordon" policy against far right parties and their associates (mainly directed against the Vlaams Belang): no TV or radio time, no interviews, no political or cultural contacts.
Blurring and crossing the lines
But it now turns out that there is at one notable exception to this virtuous rule: Dieudonné. He will be performing at a main Brussels theatre that relies on government subsidies and receives national lottery money ...
To add insult to injury, the blurb (on page 8) refers to Dieudonné as being unfairly treated by the French "media and political establishment" (maybe Le Pen can explain that one) for having performed a TV sketch, and alarmingly assuming that every Belgian is familiar with the sketch and disapproves, as the theatre does, of the totally justified outrage it caused in France. It does neither bother to mention the details nor that it was highly offensive towards Jews (by the way the word Jew that looms large in his work is nowhere to be seen). Dieudonné came on the live TV show dressed as an orthodox Jew wearing a swastika, and saying: "I urge all of you to convert like me [to Judaism]. Join the axis of Good, the American-Zionist axis." He gave a Nazi salute and cried "Isra-Heil".
"He is controversial, boycotted, condemned, and pilloried by the media and political establishment in the neighbouring hexagonal country [a mocking reference to France] ; he was banned from the airwaves after performing a dubious sketch at a TV talk-show as if he had committed a serious fault (...)"
- Dieudonné’s daughter’s godfather: guess who?
- French comic's growing anti-semitism is no joke
- Mon Dieu - It’s Dieudonne
- French comic tries to justify criticism of Holocaust `pornography'
- Laugh Riots, The French star who became a demagogue
- Extremes touch
1 comment:
Yes. That's one choice piece of dreck.
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