For 30 years or so, there has also been a radical muslim and ultra-leftist strand of anti-Semitism in France, born from support for Palestine and hatred of capitalism (seen as dominated by wealthy Jews). The revival of anti-Semitic acts, and violence, in the 1990s and the 2000\u2019s was mostly due to this new phenomenon.<\/p>\n
The figurehead of this \u201cnew anti-Semitism\u201d is M\u2019bala M\u2019Bala Dieudonn\u00e9, the stand-up comedian who has been convicted of anti-Semitic hate-speech. His emblem is the \u201cquenelle\u201d, an arm gesture which may or may not be a perversion of the Hitler salute. It has certainly become a widespread means of deniable, anti-Semitic behaviour.<\/p>\n
The kind of graffiti which appeared in Paris last weekend \u2013 the swastikas and the word \u201cjuden\u201d \u2013 bear the finger-prints of the older, rather than the newer brand of anti-Semitism. Increasingly, however, it is difficult to tell them apart.<\/p>\n
Anti-Semitic slogans can be found on Gilet Jaunes banners and anti-Semitic arguments in Gilets Jaunes sites on the internet. \u201cMacron once worked for a Rothschilds bank. He is a tool of ultra-liberal, globalist forces, controlled by Jews\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not something that you hear from \u201cordinary\u201d yellow vests on roundabouts. Anti-Semitism has specifically been decried in several lists of Gilets Jaunes positions and demands.<\/p>\n
But there is undeniably a sickening anti-Semitic obsession in one section of the yellow vests movement. It is tempting to attribute this influence to Dieudonn\u00e9\u2019s political mentor, Alain Soral.<\/p>\n