A Belgian court sentenced contentious French comedian Dieudonne M'bala on Wednesday, November 25 to two months in prison and a 9,000 euro ($9,534) fine for creating anti-Semitic jokes during a comedy show in 2012.
Dieudonne, known for his use of jokes based on ethnic pattern, has repeatedly been condemned of discrimination in France and fined for hate speech. He asserts he is not anti-Semitic.
The judgment says "that all the accusations against Dieudonne were established - both incitement to hatred and hate speech but also Holocaust denial" relating to a show in Liege in 2012, Eric Lemmens (lawyer for Belgium's Jewish) told AFP.
Judges said that the remarks, made in front of an audience of 1,100 people in the town of Herstal, were clearly calls to hatred and violence. By calling on Christians and Muslims to unite to kill Jews, he had incited genocide.
Dieudonne was at that time appealing against a fine he received from a French court in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust denier on stage.
In March, Dieudonne was found guilty by the French court of condoning terrorism and given a two-month sentence.
The performer, who made his name in a double act with Jewish comedian Elie Semoun, is infamous for his trademark "quenelle" hand gesture that looks like an inverted Nazi salute but which he insists is merely anti-establishment.
The quenelle has become viral, with many photos posted to the internet showing people posing while performing quenelles at ordinary places such as wedding parties, in high school classes, underwater.
Originally active with anti-racist, left-wing groups, the Paris-born son of a Cameroonian father and French mother began openly criticizing Jews and Israel in 2002, and ran in the European elections two years later for a French pro-Palestinian party.
