In a first post on
The post was eventually deleted. Mahiedine Mekhissi, triple Olympic medalist in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, caused controversy, writing on Tuesday October 31 on X (formerly Twitter): “Adolf Hitler is a child at heart next to Netanyahu, the West is a real collaborator.” His message is accompanied by several hashtags: #NetanyahuCriminal #NaziIsrael #racists #ZIONISTS or #IsraeliNewNazism.
A tweet that goes badly as the war between Israel and Hamas fuels fears of an increase in anti-Semitic acts in France. Many Internet users protested in the comments and announced that they would report his message on the Pharos platform. The mayor of Reims, where the former athlete lives, reacted strongly on X Tuesday : “And to think that this individual wore the jersey of the French team! I am ashamed for our city… what a disaster!”denounces Arnaud Robinet
The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, indicated that she was “Deeply shocked by such comments, in these tragic circumstances.”also on X. Addressing Mahiedine Mekhissi directly, she writes: “These disastrous comparisons flirt with everything that is most nauseating and distance you so much from the universal values of peace that sport will always defend as well as the values of Olympism that you have been able to embody for so many of our compatriots.“
“I reacted with emotion”
On Wednesday, November 1, the initial post was deleted, replaced by a series of messages where the athlete apologized, spoke of “clumsiness” and refused to be presented as an anti-Semite: “Israel launched a war aimed at annihilating Hamas, but today it is civilians who are being annihilated, and that is what makes me angry. My comparison was clumsy and bad and I apologize for that, I reacted with emotion“, he wrote first.
Before specifying: “I do not wish to trivialize what Hitler may have committed, far from it, because he was a monster. I was clumsy and the comparison was that Hitler committed genocide just like Netanyahu is doing, while world powers can stop the horror“. In a final message, he concludes: “I condemn all terrorism, whether from the Israelis or the Palestinians. I am not anti-Semitic, I condemn what Hamas is doing, I simply wish peace and love for peoples.”
The former French international, who won three Olympic medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and is now retired, has increased his shares and messages on social networks in recent weeks, denouncing Israel’s response and supporting the Palestine. “Strength for Palestinian resistance”for example, he posted on October 28.