Apologies to Dieudonné: “It’s like an artist who remixes an old hit to get out of oblivion”
“Can we forgive him? It is under this particularly exciting title that I Emmanuel Ludot, whose real name is Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala’s lawyer, was invited to host Cyril Hanouna’s program on C8 this Tuesday. An invitation related to the publication of his client’s “Letter of Apology to the Jewish Community” on the website of an Israeli magazine, forwarded by Le Parisien. The debate was named after the contents of a “missive” he wrote in the said magazine, in which the controversial and much-judged comedian asked for forgiveness from those he had offended, especially his “compatriots in the Jewish community.” According to the head of this confidential publication, “The future will show whether Dieudonne is sincere.”
To say that representatives of Jewish institutions and many Jewish personalities in France did not appreciate the gesture is an understatement. Primarily on the side of Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Organizations in France). “I don’t agree with him, but I admit that I don’t believe in the sincerity of his approach,” Yonatan Arfi, the new president of the organization, immediately admits.
“Enmity against Jews is permanent”
“Anti-Jewish hostility has been constant in Dieudonné for more than 20 years,” he said. “To be credible, he should have apologized to the judge during his sentence.” Yonatan Arfi believes that Dieudonné “must find the front of the media scene in a visible way”. And “he won’t find us as partners in his strategy to win back the audience.”
The tone is sharper for the president of the UEJF (Union of Jewish Students of France). ” Can we forgive him? I was stunned when I read this,” says Samuel Lejoyeux. “This letter is not a humorist, but a masquerade when we have been anti-Semitic militants for years. These excuses make no sense,” says the student representative.
“Dieudonné did a lot of damage, he was someone who wanted to make connections between different forms of anti-Semitism, his friend Alain Soral, a radical from the French right and more recent than Islamism, against the backdrop of all Holocaust denial.” And to claim: “Forgiveness is impossible.”
In Samuel Lejoyeux, the anger does not stop only at Elie Semu’s ex-partner. The UEJF president is also dissatisfied with the TPMP program and its presenter Cyril Hanouna, who offered media space to the polemicist. “There is obscenity in his behavior. You can’t start rehabilitating a character like Dieudonné just for the audience or the buzz. Cyril Hanouna betrays the fight against anti-Semitism by bringing it up again, “he believes. The leader fears the return of Dieudonné, who has been little talked about in recent months. “He should not be forgotten,” he believes.
“Honey”
“What’s really unfortunate is that the apology trick is one of his trickiest tricks. Dieudonné, who apologized to the Jewish community, is like any other artist who remixes an old hit to get out of oblivion, “says lawyer Patrick Klugman, who spoke openly about this speech of the polemicist.
“I’m surprised that people were fooled by this letter, even though it was called one of his first controversial shows. My excuses. I’m sorry that a show like TPMP gave him all the publicity he was looking for without any backstory. It’s a maneuver he’s already done many times,” the council adds.
“This is the strategy of the end of the race, it wears out even its most problematic public, forgotten, condemned, trying to remake itself,” notes bitterly, the lawyer of SOS Racisme. A complaint against the sad episodes of the “quenelles” so dear to Dieudonné.
