The Licra and the CRIF condemned the words the day before by the host and producer Thierry Ardisson on France 2 on Sunday comparing Gaza to Auschwitz, words for which he asked for forgiveness on Sunday, with “his Jewish friends”.
Gaza, “It’s Auschwitz, that’s it, that’s all there is,” said Thierry Ardisson on Saturday evening in the program “What era!” Presented by Léa Salamé, referring to the Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. “We will be told” But you knew “, that’s what is crazy,” he added, evoking the situation in the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the International League against Racism and Anti -Semitism (LICRA) “again condemned the trivialization of outrageous comparisons and ambient confusion. Nazism and Holocaust are not the alpha and omega of all national and international crises. Gaza is not Auschwitz, ”she wrote on the social network X.
“Guilty confusion”
The president of the representative council of Jewish institutions in France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, also launched: “No, Thierry Ardisson, Gaza is not Auschwitz!”, On the same network. “The memory of the Holocaust is never so called in public debate as by those who want to return it against the Jews,” said Yonathan Arfi.
“I deplore since October 7 (2023, note) the distress of all civil, Israeli and Palestinian populations. But for what other conflict do we use these comparisons with the Holocaust? No criticism of Israel justifies to Nazify it, “he wrote. According to him, “the situation in the Middle East is sufficiently complicated and difficult not to need these guilty confusion”.
In a statement sent to AFP on Sunday, Thierry Ardisson returned to his statements. “The emotion was undoubtedly too strong and my point exaggerated”. “I pray my Jewish friends to forgive myself,” he adds, recalling having repeatedly taken position publicly against anti-Semitism.
Apologize
He notably took part in the “march against anti -Semitism”, which took place on November 12, 2023. The team of the program also wanted to “express their understanding before the reactions and the indignation aroused by the remarks made by Thierry Ardisson”, on X, recalling that the latter had apologized.
“What era has devoted many programs to the massacres of October 7, the rise of anti -Semitism and the Holocaust. And we want to reaffirm that in no way the Shoah can be trivialized, ”adds the team. She also underlines that the “sequence in question came (…) after a long development on the horror of anti -Semitism in France”.
In war against Hamas since the unprecedented attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023, Israel has been blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, where it is vital for the 2.4 million inhabitants since March 2. Affirming that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel says that the blockade implemented on March 2, aims to force Hamas to release the hostages that have always been retained there since the October 7, 2023 attack.
