Quenelle (gesture)

[2][3] In late 2013, following its use by professional footballer Nicolas Anelka during a match, Jewish leaders, anti-racism groups, and public officials in France have interpreted it as an inverted Nazi salute and as an expression of antisemitism.

[7] Dieudonné used the gesture in various contexts, including for his 2009 European election campaign poster for the "anti-Zionist party":[7] he stated that his intention was "to put a quenelle into Zionism's butt".

[2][3] Following an incident in which the quenelle gesture was used by French soldiers stationed outside a synagogue in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, the president of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, Alain Jakubowicz, wrote an open letter to Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, dated September 9, 2013, in which he described the gesture as "an inverted Nazi salute representing the sodomy of the victims of the Holocaust".

[10][11] Critics see quenelle salutes performed (and photographed) in front of prominent Holocaust landmarks and Jewish institutions as proof of the prejudiced intent of the gesture.

[12] One man subsequently sought by French police performed the quenelle at three locales connected to the murder of Jews: two at sites related to the March 2012 Toulouse shootings and the other near the Paris monument commemorating the Holocaust.

[19] In August 2017, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of three Geneva men for showing the quenelle in front of a synagogue, while partially masked and in military uniform.

[20] Various public figures such as the French basketball player Tony Parker,[21] footballer Nicolas Anelka and National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen were pictured making the gesture.

[12] A new trend emerged, consisting of performing quenelles beside unwitting public figures identified as members of the establishment (such as Bernard-Henri Lévy, Pierre Bergé or Manuel Valls[22]) or in front of the media's cameras.

[35] On 23 December 2013, French President François Hollande said: "We will act, with the government led by prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, to shake the tranquility which, under the cover of anonymity, facilitates shameful actions online.

"[36] In a statement on 27 December 2013, France's Interior Minister Manuel Valls said he would consider "all legal means" to ban Dieudonné's "public meetings", given that he "addresses in an obvious and insufferable manner the memory of victims of the Shoah".

With respect to freedom of speech in France and banning scheduled performances ahead of time, Valls wrote: "The struggle against racism and antisemitism is an essential concern of government, and demands vigorous action".

He took note of the liberty of expression in France, but went on to say that in exceptional circumstances, the police are invested with the power to prohibit an event if its intent is to prevent "a grave disturbance of public order" and cited the 1933 law supporting this.