The publishing company sent a press release for the latest book launch: “A classic of French literature is finally available again.” When Jewish organizations protested, articles in Le Monde and Le Figaro (the two leading French daily newspapers) said that Jewish organizations had “overreacted.” The publishing company that reprinted Jewish France issued or reissued other books at the same time, such as The International Jew by Henry Ford; The Controversy of Zion by Douglas Reed, the first anti-Semitic writer to deny Hitler’s extermination of the Jews, and an Anthology of Writings Against Jews, Judaism and Zionism, including excerpts from the most libelous anti-Semitic writings of the last two centuries. These books are now available at all the most popular French bookstores. Thousands of copies of each have been sold. The CEO of the publishing company Kontre Kulture [Counterculture, with a play on words] is a famous French anti-Semitic writer, Alain Soral; his last book, Understanding Empire, purports to explain the “Jewish hold” on the world; it has been on French bestsellers lists for more than two years.

In recent months, an openly anti-Semitic black comedian, Dieudonné, presented a series of shows in the main cities of France and Belgium before large and enthusiastic audiences. One of his greatest hits is a song ridiculing the Holocaust and the “chosen people” : Shoah-Ananas (Holocaust-Pineapple). He popularized a gesture of greeting which he dubbed “quenelle” (a French dumpling), which echoes the Nazi salute. The “quenelle” salute consists of extending the right arm and straightening the hand, but the arm is lowered, and not raised at eye level. “Quenelle” is now used by many young people all over the country when they want to show what they think of Jews and Israel. Recently, pictures of French soldiers stationed outside a Paris synagogue and welcoming visitors with “quenelles” were published on several websites: a military investigation is now under way. The French Minister of Defense said that one should not attach “great importance” to what happened.