Thursday, January 23, 2014

David Baddiel on Anelka's quenelle, and anti-semitism in British football

There's an excellent 5 minute Newsnight interview with David Baddiel at this BBC url, where he discusses Anelka's 'quenelle' gesture with his typical mix of astute commentary and gentle humour. As he says, Anelka's defence amounts to "oh no, it's not an anti-semitic gesture, it's a demonstration of support for my great friend (who is a tremendous anti-semite)", and as such is not a particularly coherent position.

Baddiel goes on to describe a Frenchman's response to his own Tweet on the subject, where Baddiel is told "you don't understand, [the quenelle is not anti-semitic, it is] just anti-French government. And anti the Zionist cabal".

He makes a number of other excellent points, definitely worth the time.

-----

Nicolas Anelka: West Brom striker defends "quenelle" gesture
BBC Sport
21 January 2014

No comments: