(JTA) — A French Croatian group said it sued Bob Dylan for incitement to racial hate.
A spokesperson for the Representative Council of Croat Institutions of France, or CRICCF, said the lawsuit was filed in Paris civil court in connection with statements made by Dylan during an interview that appeared in Rolling Stone in September and was republished the following month by the French version of the magazine.
The Croatian paper Slobodna Dalmacija reported last month on the CRICCF lawsuit.
Dylan, asked about America’s slavery past, said in Rolling Stone, “Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery — that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that.” The iconic Jewish rock star added: “If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”
Serb and Croatian soldiers and militiamen fought a bloody civil war after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. Half a century earlier, the two populations also fought during World War II, when Croatia was an ally of Nazi Germany.
Vlatko Maric, a representative of CRICCF, was quoted as telling Slobodna Dalmacija that his lawsuit also named the magazine’s publisher, but that he seeks only an apology and no financial compensation.
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