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World Jewish News
Anti-Zionist party may be barred
05.05.2009
An anti-Zionist ticket may be barred from European Parliament elections, because it may be an illegal cover for anti-Semitism, France's general secretary announced.
French judges and the interior minister are conducting an investigation to determine whether the anti-Zionist party platform headed by a comedian known as Dieudonné is in fact anti-Semitic, General Secretary Claude Guéant announced Monday on France's RTL radio.
If so, the party will be barred from participating in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament at the beginning of June.
Dieudonné has run for political office in the past, and announced at the end of March that he would head an anti-Zionist ticket. The comedian caused a scandal in December when he invited a Holocaust denier, Robert Faurisson, to join him in one of his performances, and he has been condemned for anti-Semitic hate speech in the past.
On Sunday, Guéant told France Radio J that Dieudonné's party platform was "openly anti-Semitic," but that it would be up to investigators to make a final conclusion on the matter.
Guéant's announcement was nevertheless controversial.
Socialist Party spokesperson Benoît Hamon worried that if Dieudonné's anti-Zionist party is exonerated, the comedian will be seen as a victim of illegitimate attempts to censor him, and could gain in popularity.
If Guéant can't guarantee the anti-Zionist party will be forbidden from June elections, then he "has made a serious political error," said Hamon on LCP French National Assembly news network Monday.
Источник: JTA
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