A job advertisement posted on a French jobs board caused an uproar over a single line in the text: Its request that, "if possible," Jews not apply.
The posting on Graphic-Jobs.com was for a graphic designer at a Paris-based company called NSL Studio. Both Graphic-Jobs.com and NSL Studio have apologized for the offending text, but neither has taken the blame for writing it.
VIDEO - Offre d'emploi "si possible pas Juif": @SOS_Racisme porte plainte http://t.co/qbK3IvpiWa pic.twitter.com/QroIFNILLb— BFMTV (@BFMTV) February 3, 2015
NSL Studio posted on its website and on its Facebook page that it "strongly condemns" the comment, which it called anti-Semitic. It also filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office in Paris to determine who wrote the line, according to the statement, which appeared in French.
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Post by Nsl studio.
Graphic-Jobs.com also posted an apology on its website and explained how its employees typically vet ads that come in from other companies.
"We strongly condemn the nature of the content published by the agency NSL Studio," the company stated. "It is in stark contrast with the values we stand for. We have a team of moderators who daily read, check and validate more than 300 ads. Among them, more than 50 are routinely rejected and not distributed. This ... sadly passed through the control."
The ad was live for just more than half an hour before someone at Graphic-Jobs.com took it down on Monday, according to the statement.
NSL Studio has claimed that a party outside the company added the line requesting that candidates "if possible not be a Jew," but Graphic-Jobs.com refuted that claim, according to France 24.
The anti-racism organization SOS Racisme has said it will pursue legal action, according to the BBC.
The furor over the ad comes less than a month after a string of deadly attacks in Paris in January that led to heightened racial and religious tension in France. During one such attack, a gunman held hostages at a kosher market, and the resulting police standoff led to the death of the gunman and four hostages. French President Francois Hollande has called the attack anti-Semitic.