Wednesday, March 11, 2009



Film director slammed for comparing France's illegal immigrants to Jews in Nazi Germany

The comparison is a stupid and obnoxious one but the conservative French government quite properly confined itself to criticism of the claim rather than trying to take legal action against the speaker.
"France's immigration minister criticised a film director today for likening the situation of illegal immigrants in France today to that of Jews under the Nazi occupation during World War Two.

Director Philippe Lioret - whose film 'Welcome' about illegal immigrants trying to reach Britain from northern France opens on Wednesday - has criticised a French law that makes it a crime to help illegal immigrants. 'To see that a decent guy can all of a sudden be charged and that he can go to prison is crazy. It feels like it's 1943 and we've hidden a Jew in the basement,' Mr Lioret told regional newspaper La Voix du Nord last week.

Some 76,000 Jews were arrested in France during World War Two and taken to concentration camps such as Auschwitz, where most died. Those found to be hiding Jews faced a similar fate.

Immigration Minister Eric Besson told Europe 1 radio that comparing the plight of Afghans in the northern town of Calais to that of Jews during the occupation was 'intolerable' and that Lioret had 'crossed the red line'. 'I have the impression that the film's promoters are committing a deliberate slur, no doubt with the intention of increasing publicity for the film's release,' he said.

Source

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are the muslims the ones who torch France once a year?

Anonymous said...

The Frogs handled this well, which is itself surprising. It's obviously a PR stunt, but one that should not go unpunished. The law should be applied.

Anonymous said...

I have two questions:
1. Why would an immigrant who had already made it safely into France want to get into Britain. Don't they like the Frogs enough to stay? Are the Poms really so much better?
2. Why is the line over which he crossed 'red'?

Anonymous said...

How can aiding and abeting a crime be considered the same as helping out legal citizens against a foreign government?
Are we all now just World Citizens, with the ability to walk into a country and do whatever we want, regardless of their local laws, traditions, and ethics? Lets illegally immigrate to Iran and change the political system there. That should go over well.

Anonymous said...

Or do the same in Cuba, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia to change the political systems there...