French embassy reinstates worker accused of anti-Semitism

France’s embassy in Tunisia readmitted an employee who was suspended briefly over anti-Semitic messages that appeared on his Facebook account, which he claims was hacked.

Selim Dakhlaoui, a consulting agent for the embassy, was “reintegrated and resumed his responsibilities within the embassy,” a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson told JTA on Wednesday, pending an investigation by Tunisian police of Dakhlaoui‘s complaint that unidentified individuals had written the comments under his name after taking control of his account without permission.

Dakhlaoui was suspended for three days in August following the surfacing online of messages made over the past year under his name, including one reading “Hitler didn’t finish the job” in a discussion about Israel’s alleged involvement in Islamist terrorism.

The ministry spokesperson said the statements were “unacceptable” and run contrary to “France’s values.”

Dakhlaoui’s account also featured a comment from October 2015 that read “Soon it will be the end of Israel,” followed by an icon of a missile. A week later the account displayed the message “Go to hell, Israel.”

Shortly after the remarks were featured in an article published in August about Dakhlaoui in the French-language blog Inglourious Basterds, he wrote on Twitter: “Watch out, my account has been hijacked” and deleted it.

Selim Dakhlaoui (futur ex) employé de l’Ambassade de France en Tunisie: https://t.co/Qj6Bf5bQoZ pic.twitter.com/pYLDn44fKa

— Inglourious Basterds (@LesBasterds) August 3, 2016

CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, did not seem to believe his claim.

“This is a hateful comment, just like the ones we see too often on social media,” CRIF wrote in a statement about the incident. “Except this one was authored by an employee of the embassy of France in Tunisia. We anxiously await their reaction!”