Employees at famous Paris eatery photographed making anti-Semitic salute
Le Train Bleu announces disciplinary measures against workers who made quenelle gesture following uproar from Jewish groups
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A famous restaurant in Paris suspended a number of employees this week after taking heat over a photograph of them making an anti-Semitic gesture.
The photo, which was shared widely on social media, shows a dozen workers at Le Train Bleu with their arms extended in a quenelle salute.
The quenelle, a variant of the Nazi salute designed to express admiration for the murder of Jews without incurring the punishment reserved in the French penal code for the original gesture, was popularized by French comedian Dieudonne.
It was not clear when the photo was taken or by whom.
La quenelle doit être un plat qui figure sur la carte du restaurant « Le train bleu » Gare de Lyon à Paris. Je ne vois pas d’autre explication. pic.twitter.com/CF10hCQ6B5
— Gabriel Farhi גבריאל פרחי????????️ (@ravgab) December 30, 2018
Following anger over the photo from Jewish organizations, Le Train Bleu announced the suspension of the employees in the photo and said it would file a police complaint.
The photo was also condemned by SSP Group, the British company that owns Le Train Bleu.
“This gesture in the form of an inverted Nazi salute, which has become a rallying sign of which we are not unaware of of either the gravity nor the antisemitic significance of, have violated the values of our company, which refuses all forms of hatred, racism and discrimination,” it wrote in a statement quoted by the European Jewish Congress.
The decision to suspend the employees was praised by Jewish groups, among them the World Jewish Congress and CRIF, an umbrella organization of French Jewish communities.
“We join @Le_CRIF in expressing appreciation for the management’s decision to suspend all those involved and to launch an investigation,” WJC wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
Agencies contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.