NBA basketball player Tony Parker has apologised for a newly surfaced photo picturing him making the same anti-Semitic gesture which soccer star Nicolas Anelka displayed last weekend, causing outrage in their home country of France. Former Real Madrid star Anelka has now vowed never to repeat his controversial goal celebration however has not aapologized claiming he did not even know the gesture has anti-Semitic undertones.

Until recently, a quenelle was simply a type of dumpling that is a speciality of the south-eastern French city of Lyon. But the term is now also associated with French anti-Zionist comedian and would-be politician Dieudonné’s gesture of pointing one arm downwards while touching the upper arm with the other hand, in what some describe as a Nazi-style salute.

The scandal has led to renewed calls by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls to ban public appearances by  Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, who is credited with inventing the gesture.

(YWN – Studio B)