Alain Chabat, Géraldine Nakache… After the interruption of Barbara Butch’s concert, 300 personalities sign a platform to support her

Some 300 personalities, including Alain Chabat and Géraldine Nakache, co-signed a platform on Tuesday to support DJ Barbara Butch after her concert was interrupted in Grenoble by pro-Palestinian and LFI activists, which led the courts to open an investigation.

“The defense of the rights of the Palestinian people is an urgent, legitimate and necessary fight. But it cannot justify the dissemination of unfounded accusations targeting a person because of their identity or supposed affiliations, or even their opinions.wrote Jonas Pardo, author of this column in the newspaper Liberation and director of the anti-racist Boussole association.

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“Offence of concerted obstruction of freedoms”

Among the signatories – musicians, authors, actors, managers of cultural places, researchers – are the actors Alain Chabat, Géraldine Nakache, Vincent Elbaz and Ludivine Sagnier, the directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the playwright and director of the Avignon Festival Tiago Rodrigues, the author Marie Darrieussecq, the historian Patrick Boucheron and the sociologist Eva Illouz.

The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on Tuesday to “offense of concerted obstruction of freedoms”after the interruption on Saturday evening of a concert by the DJ, exfiltrated from the stage during an action by pro-Palestinian activists and LFI. This concert was the subject of a call for boycott, notably from the Grenoble branch of La France insoumise, after the Jewish artist signed a column in support of the contested Yadan bill which aimed to “fight against new forms of anti-Semitism” and has since been removed.

Cyberharassment combining grossophobia, lesbophobia and anti-Semitism

The artist “is targeted through anti-Semitic and LGBTphobic imaginaries with an ancient history”affirms the tribune. “Singling out individuals from a minority under the pretext of opposing their opinion, real or supposed, has nothing to do with the exercise of democratic debate”. “The anti-Zionism invoked was, in Grenoble, only the guise of anti-Semitism”estimated the DJ and her lawyer Audrey Msellati in a column in Le Monde, in which they specify that complaints are “ready”.

The 45-year-old DJ had already regretted, in April on Instagram, that “everyone conflates Israeli politics with being Jewish”. A figure of Parisian LGBTQ+ nights with her electro-disco universe, Barbara Butch had already been targeted by cyberharassment combining grossophobia, lesbophobia and anti-Semitism, after her participation in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.