PARIS/OSLO,
February 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A French play and
a Norwegian painting became the latest victims of the heavily-used
anti-Semitism charges.
A
French Comedian whose performance was taken off stage shrugged off
anti-Semitic allegations and regretted the entire episode as a blow to
freedom of expression by radical Jews.
Dieudonne
M'Bala M'Bala told the crowd outside Paris Olympia theatre on Friday,
February 21, that he was fighting for freedom of expression.
The
play was cancelled after French Jewish organizations accused the
French comedian of anti-Semitism.
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.
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
|
|
|
The
Norwegian painting (courtesy of Knut Falch/Scanpix)
|
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.
