Dieudonné first featured the salute in a campaign poster when he ran for office on what he called the Anti-Zionist List, and his fans embraced it. Though he claims it is merely a symbol of “anti-system” disaffection — a sort of “up yours” to the establishment — many find it hard to separate the man’s mockery of Jews from the gesture he has popularized. On social media, scores of people, including uniformed French soldiers, have posted images of themselves making the quenelle at sites associated with Jews and Jewish history.
Particularly offensive have been pictures of the salute at places that evoke anti-Semitic murder, such as Holocaust memorials, death camps, Anne Frank’s house, and the Jewish school in Toulouse where jihadist Mohammed Merah gunned down seven victims in 2012.