France: "People say they are willing to fight the system, but it's a system they say is controlled by Jewish people."

"Originally it was used by Dieudonne in his first shows. But the 'quenelle' has been used in front of Auschwitz and in front of the (Jewish) school in Toulouse," added Makonnen, referring to the Ohr Torah school where three children and a teacher were murdered last year.

"If you look closer these people say they are willing to fight the system, but it's a system they say is controlled by Jewish people."

Philippe Auclair, the England correspondent of France Football magazine, said that Anelka and Nasri's support for anti-establishment views were very much in vogue in France.

"The idea that you are against the system invariably means that you are against anyone who disagrees with your point of view," he told CNN. "It has little to do with social or ethnic origin. You have young, white middle-class men and women saying the same thing.

"When I go back to France it is like there are two parallel universes; a government that is widely perceived as incompetent, with a social situation that is like a powder keg.

"Ultra-nationalism is on the rise and it has become completely acceptable to be openly anti-Semitic and to say that there is a global Zionist conspiracy."

More: CNN