“Can we forgive him?
It is under this particularly evocative title that this Tuesday evening, Me Emmanuel Ludot, lawyer for Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, whose real name was, was invited to "Touche pas à mon poste" Cyril Hanouna's flagship program on C8.
An invitation linked to the publication by his client of a "Letter of apology to the Jewish community" on the Israel Magazine site, relayed by Le Parisien.
The debate was so titled because of the content of his “missive” in the magazine in question, where the controversial and multi-convicted comedian asks forgiveness from the people he has hurt, in particular his “compatriots in the Jewish community”.
According to the boss of this more than confidential publication, “the future will tell if Dieudonné was sincere”.
To say that representatives of Jewish institutions in France and many Jewish personalities did not appreciate the gesture is a mild understatement.
First and foremost on the side of the Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France).
“I'm not in his head, but I admit that I don't believe in the sincerity of his approach, immediately confides Yonathan Arfi, the new president of the institution.
“Hostility to Jews is a constant”
“Hostility to Jews has been a constant at Dieudonné for more than 20 years,” he adds.
To be credible, he would have had to apologize to a judge during his convictions”.
Yonathan Arfi believes that Dieudonné "needs to find the front of the media scene visibly".
And “he will not find us as an accomplice to his strategy aimed at regaining the audience”.
Dieudo's Twitter account still sports the pineapple, symbol of his song "Shoananas" making fun of the Holocaust.
For sincerity, we will come back.
Another stinking Hanouna buzz for the audience.
pic.twitter.com/04aTeps0YL
— Tristan Mendes France (@tristanmf) January 10, 2023
The tone is even more vehement for the president of the UEJF (Union of Jewish Students of France).
“
Can we forgive him?
When I read that, I was stunned,” says Samuel Lejoyeux.
“This letter is a masquerade when for years we were not a humorist but an anti-Semitic militant.
These excuses are worth nothing, ”says the student representative.
“Dieudonné did a lot of harm, he was the one who wanted to make the link between the different forms of anti-Semitism, that of his friend Alain Soral, from the French far right, and the more recent one from Islamism radical, all against a background of Holocaust denial".
And to assert: "There is no possible forgiveness".
CP - The UEJF denounces the attempt to rehabilitate Dieudonné M'bala M'bala in the program "Touche pas à mon poste" pic.twitter.com/BAe8m9WbKk
— UEJF (@uejf) January 10, 2023
At Samuel Lejoyeux, the indignation does not stop only at the ex-comrade of Elie Semoun.
The president of the UEJF also resents the TPMP program and its presenter Cyril Hanouna, who offered media space to the polemicist.
“There is indecency in his behavior.
You can't start a rehabilitation of a character like Dieudonné just for the audience or the buzz.
Cyril Hanouna, by bringing it back to light, is betraying the fight against anti-Semitism, ”he believes.
The leader fears a return to the media space of a Dieudonné who has been less talked about in recent months.
“It must remain in oblivion,” he believes.
Contacted, the entourage of Cyril Hanouna did not answer us.
"Honeyed"
“What's really unfortunate is that the apology trick is one of his most hackneyed tricks.
Dieudonné who apologizes to the Jewish community, it's like any artist who remixes an old hit to come out of oblivion ”underlines lawyer Patrick Klugman, who spoke publicly about this exit of the polemicist.
Since 2004 #Dieudonné, presents its "apologies" to the Jewish community in a show made to make fun of it.
We are waiting for those of @Cyrilhanouna for having allowed the recurrence of this heinous spitting.
pic.twitter.com/xu4D7i4Asj
— Patrick Klugman (@PKlugman) January 11, 2023
“I am surprised that people let themselves be fooled by this letter, even though one of his first controversial shows was called
Mes Excuses.
I regret that a show like TPMP gave him, without any hindsight, all the publicity he was looking for.
It is a maneuver that he has already done many times, ”adds the council.
Read alsoDieudonné apologizes … for fake
"It's the strategy of the end of the race, he ended up tiring even his most problematic public, Fallen into oblivion, condemned, he tries to redo himself", notes bitterly the one who, as a lawyer for SOS Racisme , had filed a complaint against the sad episodes of "quenelles", so dear to Dieudonné.
