September 08, 2005
A French court has upheld the acquittal of a French comic accused of making anti-Semitic slurs when he dressed as an Orthodox Jew and raised a Nazi-style salute. A Paris appeals court on Wednesday cleared Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala of "racial defamation," upholding a lower court's ruling that the imitation was not a blanket representation of Jews. The comic faced heavy criticism after appearing on French television in 2003 where he decried an 'American-Zionist' axis and raised an arm, shouting: "Isra-Heil!" Dieudonne, who is commonly known in France by his first name, argued he was playing the role of an extremist Jew in the sketch. The court ruled that his performance did not attack Jews in general, but rather a category of people with certain political views.
In 2004, Dieudonne was convicted and fined more than €5,000 for comments published in Le Monde newspaper. In that case, he had accused Jews of "organizing a very strong lobby and taking control of the media."