Post date: Jan 10, 2014 4:46:19 PM
The banning of Dieudonne's shows in Nantes and Tours provokes anger among crowds but is welcomed by the Jewish community.
NANTES, FRANCE (JANUARY 9, 2014) (BFMTV) - The second performance in Dieudonne M'bala M'bala's nation-wide tour was banned in Tours on Friday (January 10), as Dieudonne stands accused of anti-semitism.
A separate decision on Thursday by the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, to ban Dieudonne's first show in Nantes angered crowds waiting for the performance but was greeted with praise by the head of a French Jewish organisation.Fans gathered outside the Zenith concert hall in Nantes were told of the ban one hour before the performance was due to begin. The ruling was met with boos from the crowd but the Council of Statefound there would be a risk to public order were the show to proceed.
One anonymous participant said he came to the show in Nantes because of the buzz about the event on the internet.
"I wanted to form my own opinion of the show. I'm part of the people and I don't want anybody to tell me what I should do," he said.
The decision to ban the show came after Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has been leading the effort to stop Dieudonne's national tour, appealed a decision by a lower administrative court that rejected local authorities' efforts to ban the show.
The efforts to prevent Dieudonne's show were welcomed by Roger Cukierman, the president of CRIF, an organisation representing Jewish institutions in France.
"Well, it's with a great pleasure that I heard the decision of the supreme court because we're extremely worried by the fact that Mr. Dieudonne could express himself in front of huge audiences and provide to the public his message of hatred to the Jews," he said.
Cukierman told Reuters Television the word 'jew' had become an insult in primary schools, and that French jews feared wearing a kippa in public. He also said that banning Dieudonne's shows was more important than the unavoidable publicity such a decision brings.
"We cannot stay silent in front of hatred expressed and developed and propagated to so many people. So maybe we bring him publicity, but on the other hand it's good to expose the problem."
A lawyer for comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala said he would seek to appeal the decision to ban Dieudonne's second performance.
Sanjay Mirabeau, one of Dieudonne's lawyers, said the hype and publicity around the show would soon quieten.
"Today now that the first symbols of Dieudonne's tour have fallen, that Manuel Valls has won -- because it's not the Republic which has won it's Manuel Valls, and he is not the Republic -- we think the excitement will fade and that he will slowly from here be able to do his tour, restart his shows and that theCouncil of State in its great wisdom will allow him to get back on the stage," he said.
Mirabeau said he could advise his client to change the content of the show so it complies to what public order and fundamental liberties call for.
"If we believe for now that we have to avoid certain subjects, why not? We are thinking about it, we are lawyers with the duty of proposing juridical solutions to our client. Therefore why not change the show, change the title, change the content, or avoid certain sketches while adding others; or why not make a show exclusively on the black community, for example," he said.
Originally active with anti-racist left-wing groups, Dieudonne began openly criticizing Jews and Israel in 2002 and ran in the European elections two years later with a pro-Palestinian party.