Despite a court ruling ordering it to do so, Le Monde has not issued a retraction for a June, 2002 column by Edgar Morin. Instead, the paper is appealing the decision, which held Le Monde guilty of “racial defamation.” As proceedings continue, the JTA details a raging war among France’s intellectual elites, dubbed “L’Affaire Morin.”
Any gratification the Jewish community initially took in the ruling has turned to outrage as the controversy has evolved and as Morin’s backers attempt to “contextualize” the article, blunting its explicit anti-Semitism.
