DIEUDONNÉ M’BALA M’BALA – TROLL OF THE MONTH

The Troll of the Month is an incident we choose every month to expose racist and anti-religious haters and to show positive outcomes in the fight against intolerance in Europe.

The French organisations Licra and Crif have taken legal action against the comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala. The polemist has been sued for incitement to racial hatred and Holocaust denial, based on two antisemitic videos which he posted on his YouTube channel.

On the video uploaded on 9th May, which is no longer available on YouTube, Dieudonné says: “There is still a group of assholes who break the balls in this country. I promise you that soon Hollywood and the Holocaust will no longer be enough to anaesthetise people […]. One day we will come across a moustachioed one who won’t have a sense of humour, and no one will achieve anything – is that what you want?"

On the second video, posted on the 11th May and still available on YouTube, Dieudonné performs a made-up conversation between Simone Veil, Holocaust survivor and former French minister, and the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.

Licra, GTTO partner, announced on Twitter to have filed a lawsuit against the polemicist, together with the Jewish organisation Crif.

“Once more, Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala broke the law with foul and despicable antisemitic remarks. We appeal to justice once again, asking it to be firm and relentless”, reads Licra’s tweet.

Crif, the Council Representatives of Jewish Institutions of France, said “Justice has to act once and for all. His public anti-Jewish hate and his nazi inclinations are revolting”.

Dieudonné has a long history of antisemitic and Holocaust denial remarks, many of which were brought to court by French anti-racism organisations. He’s mostly known for the quenelle, an inverted Nazi salute he invented, and for stating “I feel like Charlie Coulibaly”, referring to the gunman who killed four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015.

In 2003, Licra sued the comedian for what was his first antisemitic sketch on a public TV show, where he made a satirical Nazi gesture saying “Isra-Heil!”. Since then, his antisemitic provocations, and trials, followed almost on a yearly basis. In a number of trials, Dieudonné has been found guilty of hate speech and of condoning terrorism. In the latest legal case in 2019, in which Licra took part, he was sentenced to two years in jail for tax fraud and money laundering.

In his videos, Dieudonné has also explicitly attacked Licra, as well as Crif and UEJF, as Jewish targets. In 2010, he called Licra an “Israeli undercover association”, for which he was sentenced.