Toulouse – Amid a public debate in France over an allegedly antisemitic
gesture, French media have published a photo of a man performing it outside the
Toulouse school where four Jews were murdered.
The photo, which was published Monday on the website of the television
channel France 3, shows a man wearing a shirt featuring a portrait of Yasser
Arafat in front of the Ohr Torah school.
The man is seen holding his left palm outstretched over his right
shoulder – a gesture known as quenelle, which was invented by the antisemitic
comedian Dieudonne M’balla M’balla. Jewish groups say that Dieudonne, who has
multiple convictions for inciting racial hatred against Jews, designed the
quenelle to emulate the Nazi salute without violating France’s laws against
displaying Nazi symbols to cause offense.
The picture taken outside Ohr Torah is not dated but was taken after the
Muslim extremist Mohammed Merah last year killed three children and a rabbi.
The institution changed its name since from Otzar Hatorah.
