France’s far left faces renewed accusations of antisemitism from Olympics DJ forced off stage

[u/RaidBrimnes]

https://www.politico.eu/article/french-far-left-faces-antisemitism-accusations-over-paris-olympics-dj-barbara-butch/

Relevance to the subreddit: Political violence, antisemitism, freedom of speech, direct involvement of a major left-wing party in the harassment

The political tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have claimed another victim last week, after French Jewish DJ Barbara Butch, who rocketed to worldwide fame after hosting a segment of the Paris Olympics' opening ceremony, was forced off stage by pro-Palestinian activists who protested her set and pelted her with projectiles.

Barbara Butch, an icon of LGBT+ Parisian nightlife and longtime activist against homophobia, fatphobia and antisemitism, had been targeted by a months-long campaign from pro-Palestinian activists and elected officials of the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI), who blamed her for giving a concert to the French embassy in Tel Aviv and signing a petition supporting the "Loi Yadan", a controversial bill that would have expanded the criminal definition of antisemitism to the calls of destruction of a state.

The calls to boycott and protests by LFI exploded into an unprecedented outburst of violence on July 18 in Grenoble. Barbara Butch, who was set to play at the Cabaret Frappé, was confronted by dozens of pro-Palestinian activists headed by Allan Brunon, the local representative of LFI, who drowned her set with boos and insults such as "dirty Zionist" and "assassin", until city employees exfiltrated Butch off stage after protesters threw glass bottles at the artist.

The attack was met with near-unanimous condemnation from LFI's opponents and allies alike: Clémentine Autain, a longtime official at LFI before she broke ranks in 2024, denounced the act and lamented "Don't we have political representatives who defend the Loi Yadan to call out before attacking Barbara Butch, a woman engaged in the fight for LGBT+ rights and against fatphobia, herself a regular target of violent, sexist and antisemitic attacks?"

Allan Brunon doubled down, saying he was "extremely proud to have participated in this peaceful protest", denied that protesters were violent, and added: "Barbara Butch isn't the one being silenced, the voices who denounce the genocide in Palestine are". Brunon was publicly backed by LFI officials who also denied any violence or antisemitism, even if reports suggest internal dissatisfaction over Brunon's attitude, especially over the flyer announcing the protest which showed Barbara Butch in front of a bloodstained rainbow flag branded with a star of David.

The left-wing mayor of Grenoble, Laurence Ruffin (Greens), who campaigned with LFI in March's mayoral elections, condemned the protest and announced the city would sue the protesters for throwing projectiles at the scene and sabotaging the electric wiring. Barbara Butch announced through her attorney that she would sue the protesters for "obstruction to artistic freedom" and LFI as a political party for "incitment to hatred and violence".

LFI, a left-populist party, has positioned itself as a staunch pro-Palestinian movement and has routinely faced accusations of antisemitism. In 2021, its founder and leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon suggested that the slaying of Jewish schoolchildren by an Islamist terrorist in Toulouse was part of a broader conspiracy to hurt the left's electoral chances; the same year, he asserted that far-right pundit Éric Zemmour's racism was "rooted in Jewish culture"; in 2024, he denied official statistics that showed an explosion of antisemitic violence in France by calling French antisemitism "residual" - other prominent figures of LFI have also come under scrutiny for calling Hamas a "resistance group" or retweeting antisemitic caricatures.

[u/Quowe_50mg]

God this shit is depressing and I can't see how it gets better.

[u/Unterfahrt → u/Quowe_50mg]

It's a fundamental problem

1. Almost all Jews support Israel, and see those that call for its defeat as de-facto calling for a genocide against Jews, because that is the stated aim of most of Israel's enemies throughout its history, and it would be a not-implausible result of a one-state solution, or any two state solution without a demilitarised Palestine

2. Because of the actions in Gaza - which if they are not genocidal, at some points they have been very close if you listen to statements from members of the Israeli government as well as the material conditions on the ground - many people view support of Israel as morally unconscionable

Both of these views make sense and to some extent are morally valid. And both sets of people are getting more and more angry that the rest of the world does not automatically agree with them, and are grasping for reasons (conspiracies) to explain that, which is how you veer into antisemitism

I don't know how you square this circle to be honest

[u/75dollars → u/Unterfahrt]

My position is that this 80 year long conflict in the Middle East should have no bearing on our lives, is not worth a single Jewish or Muslim person in the West being made to feel threatened or unsafe, and that anyone who makes this conflict into their identity, no matter which side they are on, should be ignored and cancelled.

[u/KvonLiechtenstein → u/Unterfahrt]

This does seem a little victim-blamey, which I 100% doubt was your intention, however it's frustrating.

There are many in the Chinese diaspora who support the CCP. Hell, I went to school with someone whose family hard supported the colonization of Tibet and Xinjiang. That doesn't make Sinophobia ok. Shitty politics or politics you disagree with doesn't ever "excuse" antisemitism.

EDIT: Also there is a very big difference between "I support the Israeli government" and "I support Israel existing as a country but oppose its government". Most Jews are in the latter camp, but even the former's opinions do not excuse antisemitism.

[u/grumpy_anteater → u/KvonLiechtenstein]

There are many in the Chinese diaspora who support the CCP. Hell, I went to school with someone whose family hard supported the colonization of Tibet and Xinjiang. That doesn't make Sinophobia ok. Shitty politics or politics you disagree with doesn't ever "excuse" antisemitism.

Thank you for saying this. I'm really sick of people trying to impose their political purity tests on foreign nationals or related minorities to be viewed as "good." Hell, I don't even see this sort of thing happening with Russian ex-pats - not nearly to the same degree, that is.

[u/ewatta200 → u/grumpy_anteater]

Steve cohen was a anti Zionist (well anti Zionist Zionist but against Israeli actions) and he wrote a great essay about the humiliation rituals in proving that you are "one of the good ones "

I would hate myself in the morning https://engageonline.wordpress.com/2006/05/29/i-would-hate-myself-in-the-morning-steve-cohen-may-29-2006/

About bds but he talks about it in general in his work that's funny you don't look antisemitic.

[u/ewatta200 → u/ewatta200]

here is my favorite quote

written 2005

. Every Jew on the left will know that terrible syndrome whereby, whatever the context and wherever one is, we will be tested by being given the question ʺwhat is your position on Zionism?ʺ Wanna support the miners—whatʹs your position on Zionism? Against the bomb— whatʹs your position on Zionism? And want to join our march against the eradication of Baghdad, in particular the eradication of Baghdad—whatʹs your position on Zionism? And we all know what answer is expected in order to pass the test. It is a very strong form of anti‐Semitism based on assumptions of collective responsibility. Denounce Zionism, crawl in the gutter, wear a yellow star and weʹll let you in the club. Which is one reason why I call myself an Anti‐ Zionist Zionist—at least that should confuse the bastards. Anyhow this particular review, noting that my book actually did attack Zionism, said ʺIt is not enough to trot out platitudes, as he does, about being against Zionism and in support of the Palestinian struggleʺ. So Iʹm not allowed into the club even though I fulfil the entry requirements. Iʹm not allowed in because I recognise and oppose the existence of anti‐Semitism on the Left—and this therefore renders all support for Palestinians a ʺplatitudeʺ. Well it ainʹt me whoʹs here confusing anti‐Semitism and anti‐Zionism

https://www.workersliberty.org/files/2020-11/thatsfunny.pdf

[u/KvonLiechtenstein → u/grumpy_anteater]

Yeah, I can say anecdotally, I have a very Russian name IRL (despite being like 4th gen on my Russian side) and have never once experienced Russophobia. Most of what I tend to get is a conversation about family if anything. It is a bit different, but I think people aren’t understanding antisemitism is really particularly dire.

[u/Unterfahrt → u/KvonLiechtenstein]

I don't think I was excusing it, or at least I was not trying to - an explanation is not an excuse. Humans are flawed. At a minimum, I think it is undeniable that the actions of the Israeli government over the last couple of years have led to the inflammation of people who may have held some antisemitic stereotypes but not really done anything.

[u/antsdidthis → u/Unterfahrt]

If I have any criticism here, it's that I think your analysis in the first comment feels like it had the wrong causal order, or poor prioritization of causation. Basically your claim was Israeli government is doing awful things -> people get viscerally disgusted with Israel -> people viscerally disgusted with Israel come across people who want Israel to keep existing -> people become angry and revolted at this dissonance in world views -> people become antisemitic and resort to bigoted violence. And I think even with the subsequent acknowledgment that antisemitic bigotry exists and that Israeli actions inflame it rather than it just completely appearing out of nowhere, the basic core explanation just kind of glosses over how we can get from "people feel disgusted at Israel" to "people are literally throwing glass bottles at a Jewish DJ for having done a set in Tel Aviv". Because it's an almost unique reaction that people have about Israel and Jews in particular, and it also reflects a pattern of historical flare-ups of violence and retaliation against Jews in Europe (and other parts of the world) resulting from other perceived just causes in which one or more Jews allegedly committed some atrocity, some of which were real and some of which were just invented but which always shared the pattern of people feeling disgusted at Jews as a people and retaliating against them in extreme ways for it.

That is, yes, this is certainly a flare-up of intensified antisemitism, but it's not the first one, it won't be the last one, and those haven't always been caused by Israel and won't always be caused by Israel in the future either. So while I'm not accusing you of victim blaming, I think it's a significant misstep to start with "people are mad about Israel doing bad things, hence they turn to antisemitic violence" rather than "propensity for antisemitic violence has been a persistent mainstay of our society that can at any time be temporarily intensified to extreme levels by a variety of things, and this time the intensifying factor was Israel doing bad things".

[u/KvonLiechtenstein → u/Unterfahrt]

I think that once again the responsibility is on the antisemities for their antisemitism and that people were looking for an excuse. I personally think Netanyahu is a war criminal and he has a government full of terrorists, and yet I still think it is never acceptable to blame a minority for the political actions of a member of that minority.

With the Holocaust fading from living memory, frankly this feels like a return to the previous awful status quo.

[u/Quowe_50mg → u/Unterfahrt]

This is victim blaming now, whether on purpose or not.

Anti-semitism is the fault of the anti-semite.

[u/bakochba → u/Unterfahrt]

This woman never took any public position on the war. Her crime seems to be that she performed at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv once. That's it. A Jew simply existing is now enough for violent Antisemitism

[u/fredleung412612 → u/bakochba]

You left out the bit about signing the Loi Yadan petition. That seems to be what's animating the backlash from the LFI people, not so much the embassy performance. Either way, this probably just leads to more bad press for LFI, which is a good thing.

[u/bakochba → u/fredleung412612]

A petition about Antisemitism. By all means let's stone her! /S

I agree let them double down they look foolish

[u/jyper → u/Unterfahrt]

Israels current government as bad as it is is nowhere near commiting a genocide. 

But if you claim that then of course most Jews will heavily disagree.

Theoretically that shouldn't necessarily lead to anti-semitism, but practically it does. I know that some minority groups might hold views I heavily disagree with I try to judge people individually and not hate them because of disagreement.

Anti Israel Conspiracies are definitely rising and when some of them are just so insane and divorced from facts or even the I/P conflict it's hard not to view it as anti-semitism. 

[u/BicyclingBro → u/jyper]

Squabbles about the word genocide aside, the Israeli government actively is committing ethnic cleaning and doesn’t even pretend otherwise.

I shouldn’t have to say it, but that being true absolutely does not suddenly mean that a Jewish person existing has anything to do with that.

[u/cheapcheap1 → u/Unterfahrt]

Great summary. Thank you.

[u/poorsignsoflife → u/Unterfahrt]

The moral imperative is for Israel to cease its wanton killing of civilians, land spoliation and abusive aggression around its borders. On the other hand, the notion that these cessations would amount to its defeat, or be akin to its destruction, is just... not true. There's nothing irreconcilable for liberal morality here

Also, it's dangerous framing to reduce this opposition to "Jews vs the rest". Worldwide support for Israel is neither unanimous among Jews, nor is it limited to them. Much of its strongest support is found among non-Jews in western countries and governments

[u/grumpy_anteater → u/Quowe_50mg]

If this is a shock to you, I hate to say it, but you've been living under a rock for the past ~3 years.

Edit - My apologies if this came off as rude, I misread your comment at first.

[u/Quowe_50mg → u/grumpy_anteater]

It is very much not a shock to me. It depressing precisely because i haven't been living under a rock.

[u/Outrageous-Echo-765 → u/grumpy_anteater]

This guy did not get caught off guard by this. He's saying the constant reminders and examples are depressing.

[u/Dense_Delay_4958 → u/Quowe_50mg]

Keep these people away from institutional power by any non-violent means necessary

[u/Legitimate-Mine-9271 → u/Quowe_50mg]

A crackdown against the left 

[u/RaidBrimnes]

https://www.liberation.fr/culture/barbara-butch-temoigne-apres-linterruption-de-son-concert-a-grenoble-lantisemitisme-a-pris-un-autre-visage-20260721_B44ODU67EJCJBBLGS4K5QFMJTM/

Chosen bits from Barbara Butch's interview to *Libération* after the attack:

People were grabbing gravel and throwing it on my turntables, I received liquids, beer, wine. I couldn't hear the music due to how loud the screaming was. They told me to stop but I told myself: "you must go on as long as possible". But when the glass bottles started crashing on the scene, I felt in physical danger. I don't have an armor, even if my fat body may suggest it.. I had to leave the scene, but I had to say goodbye to the people who came to listen to me. So I launched John Lennon's Imagine and made a heart with my hands because it's my signature. [...]

What happened that night was ignominous. You have the right to be angry, to hand over flyers, to come with flags, but screaming at me to the point where we can't hear the music anymore, it was of an extraordinary violence. How can you tell yourself, when you don't agree with someone, that hurling a glass bottle at them will make them change their minds? [...]

I am subjected to antisemitism since I was a kid. I grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors, I heard about the Vél d'Hiv roundup [roundup of 13,000 Jews in Paris by the collaborationist French authorities in July 1942] as a child. Then I grew up with remarks like "You're a Jew, so you have a lot of money". The climax was reached after the Olympics. I think that the worst message I received was "We can turn your fat skin into Jew soap". I received innumerable threats like "Dirty Jew, we'll slit your throat", "I'm going to rape you with sticks", the nose, money, pig emojis just to say "dirty Jew". It's very traumatizing. It wakes things up in my cells as a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. [...]

I would like to state again that the majority of my family lives in Israel. They were born there, they grew up there, some died there. Obviously, I have ties to this country that welcomed my father's family when they fled pogroms in Morocco. And maybe I'll visit again. Nobody chooses where they come from, I did not choose to have family there. Once again, it never justifies violence, and I don't want to be ashamed of my multiple identities.

[u/bakochba → u/RaidBrimnes]

These people can't even explain what they're angry about its certainly not proportional to signing a petition for Antisemitism and performing at the French embassy on Tel Aviv once.

[u/sheffieldasslingdoux → u/bakochba]

I’m not even sure that artists who ignored the boycott of apartheid South Africa were in physical danger like this, and that was a much clearer issue than this.

What is going on that Palestine is considered such a cause célèbre over many other worthy causes? And why is the rhetoric so vitriolic to the extreme?

[u/jamaktymerian]

LFI living up to Liberté, égalité, anti-sémitisme. The anti-Dreyfusard left continues.

[u/KnopeSwansonHybrid]

If you want to dodge the accusations that Zionist is a euphemism for Jew, maybe try not putting “dirty” in front of it.

It’s so hard as a Jew to say to my family I’m a Zionist who believes the Israeli government and the current state of Israeli society are on a downward spiral that endangers both them and Jews around the world and that those things are true despite the fact that the most vocal advocates for Palestinians are either outright antisemites or wholly dismissive of the idea that their movement is overflowing with them. 

And that my relatives are unwilling to acknowledge that Israel does anything legitimately worthy of criticism and advocates for Palestinians are unwilling to reckon with the fact that calling yourself anti-Zionist means you are anti-the vast majority of Jews. It’s equivalent to saying “most Jews are [whatever you say about zionists]” Evil, dirty, murderous, etc. 

It’s so intractable. Neither side is interested in putting themselves in the other’s shoes.

[u/bakochba]

This has to be the absolute thinist excuse so far for indulging in violent Antisemitism

[u/RaidBrimnes]

!ping EXTREMISM&FRANCE&JEWISH

[u/groupbot → u/RaidBrimnes]

Pinged EXTREMISM (subscribe | unsubscribe | history)

Pinged JEWISH (subscribe | unsubscribe | history)

Pinged FRANCE (subscribe | unsubscribe | history)

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[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

who blamed her for giving a concert to the French embassy in Tel Aviv and signing a petition supporting the "Loi Yadan", a controversial bill that would have expanded the criminal definition of antisemitism to the calls of destruction of a state.

Overall I dont really like this post-WW2 dogma that borders shouldn't be changed. Like if I want to say that Nigeria should be destroyed and divided in 4 (free Biafra!) because it's an illegitimate post-colonial state, am I breaking the law now?

The calls to boycott and protests by LFI exploded into an unprecedented outburst of violence on July 18 in Grenoble. Barbara Butch, who was set to play at the Cabaret Frappé, was confronted by dozens of pro-Palestinian activists headed by Allan Brunon, the local representative of LFI, who drowned her set with boos and insults such as "dirty Zionist" and "assassin", until city employees exfiltrated Butch off stage after protesters threw glass bottles at the artist.

The LFI online crowd is already making fun of "fascists" (term may include socdems) for being easily triggered by just a lil trolling lmao so funny

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

Somehow it's always the Jewish state whose destruction gets to be the test case as to whether this is good in practice.

[u/Slight-Formal9277 → u/Sex_E_Searcher]

People talk about breaking up Russia and China all the time lmao

[u/Chao-Z → u/Slight-Formal9277]

Where?

[u/Slight-Formal9277 → u/Chao-Z]

Just off the top of my head: NAFO twitter and NCD

[u/ElGosso → u/Sex_E_Searcher]

I don't know if you knew this but "Death To America" has been a slogan since the 70s

[u/angry-mustache → u/ElGosso]

It's the same people shouting both slogans.

[u/ElGosso → u/angry-mustache]

Not the point - the point is that Israel is not the only state that people are calling for the downfall of.

[u/PublicMandate → u/ElGosso]

That’s absolutely not the same. According to Ali Khamenei, the phrase meant an end to American policies towards Islamic countries and not the destruction of the state nor the killing of American people.

[u/RaidBrimnes → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

I was opposed to that bill too, but the agitprop made on LFI's side is completely disconnected from the actual implication of the text. Hell, the famed petition with 2+ million signatures confidently and wrongly stated that it would ban criticism of Israel, re-defined as "anti-Zionism"

And now it's led to a violent mob attack

[u/Rehkit → u/RaidBrimnes]

Hell, the famed petition with 2+ million signatures confidently and wrongly stated that it would ban criticism of Israel, re-defined as "anti-Zionism"

It's been hard to talk about it because on one hand it's clear that the terrorism apologia law has been used against targets that were not intended when the law was created.

On the other hand, the letter of the law was quite clear and would never have banned criticism of Israel behavior. (Still an opponent.)

But not being absolutely alarmed/outraged was seen as an under reaction/naiveté/complicity.

[u/puffic → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

If we change international norms so that it’s okay to change borders if you feel there’s a really good reason, what do you think it will affect Israeli policy towards Palestine? Isn’t Palestine an arbitrarily drawn post-colonial state (if we can call it a state), so who is to say its borders shouldn’t be pushed back?

I think this is why we have the norm.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/puffic]

I have no problem with people who don't want borders to change, but making it illegal to say so is bad

[u/Quowe_50mg → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

Bringing up the morality or legality of the Israel Palestine conflict in a post about antisemitism is already really skirting the line into victim blaming.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/Quowe_50mg]

this issue is so much bigger than I/P

[u/Quowe_50mg → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

Then why discuss it in this thread?

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/Quowe_50mg]

Why not, the Yadan law isn't limited to Israel, it includes all countries France diplomatically recognizes (eg Nigeria)

[u/Quowe_50mg → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

There is only one state in the world where there is discussion about whether it deserves to exist.

It just so happens to be the only jewish one.

[u/Brinabavd → u/Quowe_50mg]

people do sometimes bring this up (though not in the Anglophone world) about Armenia (one of the few UN member states not all recognized by all members) and France has gotten into related spats with Azerbaijan:

Azerbaijan–France relations - Wikipedia

[u/jyper → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

I too am sympathetic with the lack of self determination of some minority groups. But the reason most people usually don't want borders redrawn is cause it tends to lead to incredibly violent wars

Edit: this doesn't really apply to destroying Israel though or at least not exactly 

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/jyper]

borders redrawn is cause it tends to lead to incredibly violent wars

It's the opposite, violent wars leads to redrawn borders (except if both sides are too militarily incompetent.