Avignon: The author of the anti-Semitic fresco with J. Attali summoned by justice
Last June, a large fresco representing Emmanuel Macron as a puppet manipulated by the economist Jacques Attali, who is Jewish, thus taking up the old anti-Semitic clichés, seeing the Jews as ruling the world, appeared on the wall of a parking lot in Avignon (Vaucluse).
Following an investigation by the judicial police, the prosecutor of Avignon, Florence Galtier, took the decision to prosecute the graffiti artist Lekto, at the origin of the painting. The man will thus be judged for incitement to discrimination, violence, hatred by a remark of an anti-Semitic nature, a reported the newspaper The Dauphine.
The fresco was titled “The Beast 2”. It had been erased on June 24, covered with white paint. A kitten drawing came to cover this layer at the end of August.
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Jacques Attali had filed a complaint on June 30 for “provocation to hatred and racial discrimination” and for “public insult”.
“This drawing takes up everything we have seen, with the representation of the Jewish plot, the anti-Semitic plot, which refers to all this propaganda that there was in France, in Germany in the 1930s”, had indignant lawyer son. “You really have to be uneducated not to see that this drawing is anti-Semitic,” he added.
The graffiti artist will thus be summoned before the Avignon Criminal Court on October 31. However, he should not be tried on this date, this first hearing having for but to ensure the continuation of the proceedings beyond the three-month limitation period governing press offences.
As soon as photos of the anti-Semitic painting with Jacques Attali were published on social networks, several Jewish associations, political leaders and Internet users had stated the discriminatory and conspiratorial nature of the painting and asked for its removal.
Freedom of expression and irony: a graffiti artist from Avignon replaces the anti-Semitic fresco with a cute kittenhttps://t.co/VHS74ER20t
— France Bleu Vaucluse (@bleuvaucluse) August 19, 2022
Initially, the town hall of Avignon had requested the erasure of the painting from Grand Avignon, owner of the building on which it was painted, in the parking lot of the Italians.
But Grand Avignon and the city of Avignon had finally revealed that “everyone could interpret the image as they wish, since there are no words on this wall”, and that there was therefore no instead of deleting it. Grand Avignon and the city said they “want to respect freedom of expression in this way”, while the fachosphere applauded the decision.
Finally, the anti-Semitic fresco had been covered with paint by young people of the city, then had finally been erased in the rules of the art, and covered with white, by a company mandated by the Grand Avignon, before the painting of kitten end august.