Monday, December 30, 2013

NBA Player Photographed Doing “The Nazi Salute in Reverse”

On the right, NBA star TonyParker  doing the quenelle with comedian Dieudonne, backstage after a Dieudonne performance.


It's called the “quenelle,”  a gesture described as “the Nazi salute in reverse,” Roger Cukierman, the leader of an umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, told Reuters.

In a photo, NBA star Tony Parker is seen using the gesture with French comedian Dieudonne, who invented the hand signal, according to NyPo. Dieudonne is a known supporter of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s views on the State of Israel, says NyPo. His film, “The Anti-Semite,” was banned from the Cannes Film Festival last year.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is asking Parker to apologize after multiple French newspapers posted pictures of Parker doing the “quenelle."

“As a leading sports figure on both sides of the Atlantic, Parker has a special moral obligation to disassociate himself from a gesture that the government of France has identified as anti-Semitic,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said, according to The Algemeiner.

The call for the apology comes just one day after French soccer star Nicolas Anelka displayed the same gesture after scoring a goal for West Bromwich of the English Premier League.

UPDATE

 Parker has issued a statement apologizing.

“While this gesture has been part of French culture for many years, it was not until recently that I learned of the very negative concerns associated with it,” Parker said in the statement. “When l was photographed making that gesture three years ago, I thought it was part of a comedy act and did not know that it could be in any way offensive or harmful.

“Since I have been made aware of the seriousness of this gesture, I will certainly never repeat the gesture and sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding or harm relating to my actions. Hopefully this incident will serve to educate others that we need to be more aware that things that may seem innocuous can actually have a history of hate and hurt.”

4 comments:

  1. Is this is the level of stupid we have descended to? If I wave to some one, is that a loose Hitler salute? The morons who see Hitler in every ink blotch don't understand what made a Hitler. These modern day devil chasers believe that using government to combat every ill or offensive act is how you prevent the next rise of evil. It is in fact the evil spirit of National Socialism's best known poster boy they are emulating.

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  2. Reverse Hitler salute?

    Isn't that the same as.... not a Hitler salute? That's like saying I gave somebody the "reverse finger."

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  3. Gentlemen, Dieudonne's entire act is now almost entirely based on what he considers anti-Zionism. He ridicules the Shoah as memorial porn, he references the blood-libel, and often rails on jewish-controlled banking. His views are well known, and he makes no apologies for them. He used to fill arenas, and now he can't even get small theatres because he has been run out of town by the establishment.

    Europe's silly "feeling" laws of libel are just going to make it worse. Every time the French state tries to stamp him down with the force of the law, the young disenfranchised arab and black men of the poor Parisian suburbs rally behind him even more. His "quenelle" salute, which was supposed to be a big middle finger to the jewish community, has now taken a tone of a big middle finger to the establishment with the younger French generation.

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  4. If you didn't know, this is what the kids in France are doing with Dieudonné's "quenelle" salute:

    http://k00ls.overblog.com/2013/12/pour-ceux-qui-pr%C3%A9tendent-que-la-quenelle-n-est-pas-un-geste-antis%C3%A9mite.html

    There isn't a whole lot of ambiguity about it.

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