French Jewish musician Barbara Butch was scheduled to perform at the Cabaret Frappé festival in Grenoble—but an estimated 200 ‘free Palestine’ activists had other ideas.
Ultimately Butch was forced to leave the stage, after the activists began hurling insults and bottles at her. According to them, her ‘crimes’ include
- a performance in Tel Aviv in 2025 after the main Pride event there was cancelled;
- past support for proposed legislation, the ‘Yadan bill,’ aimed at restricting support for terror and Holocaust distortion/denial.
It remains unclear whether the campaigners object more to her Jewish family background or her opposition to modern forms of antisemitism, but under pressure from antisemites she cut short her cover version of the John Lennon dirge ‘Imagine’ and left the stage. The episode certainly points to the folly of any ‘Queers for Palestine’ activism.
Previously Butch was at the centre of a global controversy concerning alleged anti-Christian messaging during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Four men were subsequently convicted on November 21st, 2025 of “cyberbullying” her with threats and harassment. Later, she went to further anger Christians in her official role as the 2026 artistic director of the annual Nuit Blanche festival, also staged in Paris.
