(JTA) – A far-left French politician accused Jews of deicide, or being responsible for the death of Jesus, during a television interview. 

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of the democratic socialist La France Insoumise, or Unsubmissive France party, and a member of the National Assembly, made the remarks on July 16, in an interview on the French BFM-RTL TV news channel. Asked if the French police were supposed to stand back in the face of violent protest, Melenchon responded that they needed to “stay put like Jesus on the cross without reacting.” He added that “I don’t know if Jesus was on a cross, but he was apparently put there by his own people,” he said, meaning Jews, and thus repeating the antisemitic canard that the Jews killed Jesus.

The Wiesenthal Center director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, said that “the repeated accusation of deicide – throughout the Middle Ages – resulted in pogroms, torture and execution of Jewish communities. It’s imagery fueled violence across Europe, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust.” He noted that the accusations were condemned by the papal encyclical Nostra Aetate in 1965. He called on Melenchon to publicly apologize for the false accusations. The Judeo-Christian Fellowship of France also condemned Melenchon’s comments.

Main Photo: Jean-Luc Melenchon at a campaign rally in Lille, France, April 12, 2017. (Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images)