© Meltybuzz.fr
No one seems to know just what is meant by the "quenelle," the vaguely menacing hand gesture invented and popularized by a French comedian widely criticized as anti-Semitic, but it is clearly nothing very nice, and it appears to be spreading.
Fans of the performer, Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, send him photos of themselves performing the gesture in front of historic monuments, next to unwitting public officials, at weddings, under water and in high school class photographs, but also, increasingly,
beside synagogues, Holocaust memorials and street signs displaying the word "Jew." At least one young man appears to have posed for a quenelle outside the grade school in Toulouse where, in 2012,
four Jews were killed by a self-proclaimed operative of Al Qaeda.
Jewish leaders, antiracism groups and public officials have pointed out that the quenelle, which is also the name of a fish dumpling that is a regional French delicacy, strongly resembles a downward-facing Nazi salute. Mr. M'Bala M'Bala, who goes by Dieudonné, insists it is nothing more than an "antisystem" joke for his initiates, most of them young men, some from the disaffected immigrant suburbs, some from the xenophobic far right.
Comment: It's interesting to see how uniform criticism of Dieudonné is outside of France.
See the following articles for the real story, one that is not being reported by ANY mainstream media:
Dieudonné M'bala M'bala and the Quenellization of France
The Move to Muzzle Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala