"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Comedian, polemicist and dominant figure in the French-speaking antisemitic conspiracy sphere, Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala has been convicted multiple times for incitement to racial hatred.
He first rose to prominence in the 1990s, performing alongside childhood friend, French, Jewish comic and actor Elie Semoun. Their iconic partnership ended in 1997 for artistic and financial reasons. At the same time Dieudonné embarked on a parallel political career. At first he ran on an anti-racism ticket, unsuccessfully contesting the far right National Front-held provincial town seat of Dreux in the legislative elections.
But in the years following, Dieudonné underwent what appeared to be an ideological transformation gravitating rapidly towards the extreme anti-semitic right - and far left. While managing the fabled Théâtre de la Main d’Or in Paris, he began hosting hate groups like the French branch of the Nation of Islam. The Black supremacist and antisemitic organization led by Louis Farrakhan, is infamous for perpetuating myths about Jewish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on America, Dieudonné launched a barrage of incendiary statements - and has rarely let up since. In early 2002 in Lyon Capitale, he claimed that “racism was invented by Abraham... Jews and Muslims don’t exist for me... Judaism is a sect, a scam.” Shortly after, in L’Écho des Savanes, he praised Osama bin Laden as “the most significant figure in contemporary history” and suggested George W. Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Such remarks cemented his blend of anti-Americanism and demonizing antisemitism, frequently equating Israel with Nazism.
On France 3 in 2003, he lampooned “Zionist fundamentalism” and denounced an “American-Zionist axis.” In 2004, amidst a rise in antisemitic attacks, he ran in the European elections with the Euro-Palestine list, backed by the sulfurous Jew hater Alain Soral. Around this time, Dieudonné began associating with Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson and launched a website disseminating conspiracies about “Zionist” manipulation.
In December 2004, during an interview with Thierry Ardisson, Dieudonné defended the television channel of Lebanese terrorist group Al-Manar—a station that notably accused Israel of having spread AIDS in Africa. When asked, "What do you think about that?" Dieudonné replied: "AIDS is an invention to annihilate the Black population of Africa. It wouldn't be a bad idea to study the origins of this disease. No, I don't believe it, but I wonder. There should be an investigative commission."
In Algeria in 2005, he dismissed Holocaust remembrance as “memorial pornography” and accused “Zionist power” in France of historical manipulation. Later that year, he appeared at a conference with conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan, an early ally.
It was during this period that Dieudonné introduced the “quenelle,” a gesture resembling a Nazi salute, later adopted by his followers and some footballers as an antisemitic rallying symbol. He later claimed to avoid using the term “Jew” publicly, preferring “Zionist,” which he believed carried less risk of legal repercussions.
In 2007, Dieudonné’s ties to the far right deepened. He attended the National Front’s Bleu-Blanc-Rouge festival and asked party founder, convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen to be godfather to one of his children. By 2008, he hosted Faurisson on stage, awarding him a “prize for insolence.” In 2009, he ran for the European elections on an “anti-Zionist” list alongside Soral and others, attracting support from controversial figures like Raël, founder of the Raelian UFO cult.
In November 2009, Dieudonné met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran A few months later, he dedicated a show with antisemitic and negationist undertones titled "Mahmoud" to him. In February 2015, Dieudonné returned to Iran to present Ahmadinejad with a "Golden Quenelle."
His 2010 signing of a petition against France’s Holocaust denial law placed him again alongside figures like Soral and Holocaust denier Vincent Reynouard.
In an impassioned interview for the Iranian channel Sahar TV in February 2011, Dieudonné hailed Iran as "an example" and referred to Islam as "a wind that comes and liberates populations." He declared that "Zionism killed Christ," equating it with "the Evil One" (a term for the Devil in Christian tradition):
"[Zionism] is the Evil One, vice, and lies. Islam is the pursuit of truth; Zionism is the pursuit of manipulation and lies. And the [Jewish] religion, well... it's a philosophy. We don’t really know what it is, except vice, perversion, and racism. It is the very opposite of Christian and Islamic values. [...] There is nothing more foolish, nothing more deceitful than Zionism. Zionism is the worst of what we have within us; it is the basest of instincts. [...] Zionism crushes you, dominates you, and turns you into a slave. [...] You know, when you're in France, you learn Zionism in school, then you work for Zionism, and you submit to Zionism—it even becomes your religion. [...] Most of today’s state structures and French institutions are under Zionist control. [...] Falling to Zionism doesn’t bother me: death will be more comfortable, anyway, than submission and the condition of a Zionist slave."
In July 2012, a few months after the terrorist attacks by French-Algerian jihadist Mohammed Merah in Toulouse and Montauban, in which he murdered three Jewish children and a teacher and three soldiers, Dieudonné portrayed the terrorist as the victim of a state conspiracy in his show Foxtrot. In 2013 a man was filmed performing Dieudonné’s increasingly trendy quenelle outside the Jewish school in Toulouse where Merah assassinated the children and the father of two of those students murdered.
In 2013, regarding the proposed law to legalize same-sex marriage, Dieudonné referred to it as a "Zionist project aimed at dividing people."
His performances and public remarks increasingly showcased Shoah negationism and conspiracy theories. In 2013’s The Wall, he mocked the French journalist Patrick Cohen, lamenting about “the gas chambers... what a pity.” The routine was banned for inciting hatred. Meanwhile, his “quenelle” gesture gained notoriety, adopted by extremists and Holocaust deniers.
From its inception, Dieudonné quickly sided with the violent conspiracist anti-Macron Yellow Vest movement which enjoyed support from the extreme right and some far left figures. On Saturday, December 1, 2018, during the "Act III" of the Yellow Vest protests in Paris, he symbolically invited his fans to gather on Rue Lauriston in the 16th arrondissement—an address with symbolic resonance as the former headquarters of the French Gestapo during the Occupation.
On October 22, 2018, the day after the death of Faurisson, Dieudonné tweeted:
"Robert Faurisson has left us. I have lost a friend, an exceptional man who inspired me greatly. I know the thirst for truth to which he was bound is now quenched; it made his life a work like no other. In a normal world, your place would be in the Panthéon. We will not forget you, Robert. You are the only one for whom I will impose upon myself a duty of remembrance." Dieudonné caused further scandal when he visited Auschwitz wearing Faurisson’s distinctive black hat.
Legal troubles escalated. In 2017, he was fined for fiscal fraud and antisemitic hate speech. Despite multiple convictions, Dieudonné continued disseminating conspiracy theories, including claims that the COVID-19 pandemic was orchestrated by “Rothschild and associates.” His digital platforms, including his YouTube channel, were shut down in 2020 for promoting hate speech.
Now expelled from the Théâtre de la Main d’Or, Dieudonné remains a polarizing figure whose work continues to offend and provoke, embodying a dangerous convergence of humor, denialism, and antisemitic hate.
But Dieudonné’s unbridled antisemitism and the relegation of the Holocaust in collective memory, notably since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, has triumphed. The ides of Dieudonné, like his partner in antisemitic conspiracist crime Alain Soral, have taken root across significant segments of the population, including within the student left. The duo have brought together the old antisemitism of the extreme right National Front with the new antisemitism surging in many French Arab and Muslim communities and in the political party that covets their votes - the extreme left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed). Journalist and essayist Antoine Menusier, writing in Le Figaro said the pair are “ostracized, yet they are having their revenge”.
“Soral and Dieudonné see their subversive efforts paying off. It matters little that their names are unknown to pro-Palestinian students; only the outcome counts. In France, for many, the marginalization of Jews and the hatred of Israel trace back to them. Soral and Dieudonné: a duo that emerged on the Euro-Palestine lists of the 2000s. Today, the Palestine list is that of La France Insoumise (LFI). No surprise there. A continuum of resentment connects the pre-attack years, marked by growing antisemitism, to the present, where this resentment, tinged with hope, has found in Jean-Luc Mélenchon a political legitimacy that Soral and Dieudonné— the thwarted thinker and the stifled entertainer— never achieved.”
(Last updated on 12/20/2024)
