France: Anti-semitic political website has over 8 million monthly visits

Grégory Chelli, aka Ulcan
Photo: Inglourious Basterds

Grégory Chelli, who operates under the pseudonym Ulcan, is a French-Israeli pro-Israel militant and hacktivist. Earlier this week,  Chelli hacked into the website 'Egalité et Réconciliation' run by veteran anti-semitic and conspiracy-theorist writer Alain Soral.

In June a French court fined Soral for saying that Hitler should have should have finished killing the Jews of Europe.

Chelli explained to Le Monde that he had extracted personal details of thousands of Soral's fans - some have already been disclosed - and undertook to contact their employers if Soral did not close his blog.  By supporting him they were complicit in spreading anti-semitic propaganda.

According to sociologist Antoine Bévort, 'Egalité et Réconciliation' is the political blog in France with the highest traffic topping a staggering 8.1 million monthly visits.

Quoting these figures, Grégory Chelli told Le Monde that "the most viewed French political website is operated by an extremist. I demand its closure".

The amazing success of Soral's blog - who is a friend of comedian Dieudonné - shows how widespread and attractive anti-Jewish discourse remains in France.  Equally worrying is the fact that anti-semitic propaganda keeps being 'exported' to other French-speaking countries in Europe and beyond.