French DJ and political activist Barbara Butch during her performance at the Nuit Blanche festival on the forecourt of the City Hall in Paris, France on June 6, 2026. Photo: Quentin de Groeve / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

A French Jewish DJ has filed a complaint against pro-Palestinian activists who verbally harassed her and violently disrupted her set at a music festival in France last weekend, her lawyer said Thursday.

Barbara Butch, 45, said she was forced off stage mid-set at the Cabaret Frappé festival the eastern city of Grenoble on Saturday after more than 100 protesters in the audience verbally abused her with “whistles, boos, shouts, and insults,” while also throwing gravel, cardboard, plastic objects, liquids, and glass bottles, some of which shattered on her mixing console and near her feet. The protesters included members of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party.

Butch was targeted for supporting a controversial bill introduced by French lawmaker Caroline Yadan that aimed to address contemporary forms of antisemitism. The bill was ultimately withdrawn in April.

Butch filed a criminal complaint in Grenoble and Paris against LFI on Thursday for inciting hatred and violence, her lawyer Audrey Msellati told AFP. “It is important to file a complaint to let justice see who is responsible and restore the truth,” Butch told Franceinfo radio on Thursday. “It was of unprecedented violence,” she added about the abuse she faced on Saturday. “I was extremely scared, so much so that I couldn’t move for days.”

Butch’s lawyer also filed other complaints against LFI, some of its elected officials and local representatives, as well as the far-right French digital media outlet Omerta and the essayist Alain Soral.

In a statement on Monday, Manuel Bompard, LFI’s national coordinator, told Franceinfo he acknowledged a ”political position can generate a protest, provided that it is peaceful” and condemned, “if there were any,” the “absolutely unacceptable” insults hurled at Butch.

Grenoble Mayor Laurence Ruffin announced on Monday that the city will also file a formal complaint related to the disruption of Butch’s set “to ensure the full facts come to light and that the perpetrators are held accountable before the law.” Ruffin condemned the “unacceptable” actions of the protesters who targeted the Jewish DJ last week and said in a lengthy statement on Facebook that preventing an artist from performing “through pressure and violence” is “an unacceptable infringement on the freedom of creation and expression.”

The incident was not a “peaceful protest” and “acts of sabotage against the electrical systems were also committed, endangering the audience, technical crews, and artists,” the mayor noted. “Our support for the Palestinian people, who are victims of genocide, is unwavering. At the Cabaret Frappé festival, numerous artists have expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Defending civil liberties, however, has never meant accepting threats or violence … Nothing can justify targeting artists, organizers, or elected officials because of their opinions, their activism, or their programming choices.

Ruffin concluded by saying that Grenoble “will remain a city that protects freedom of artistic expression; guarantees the safety of artists, cultural staff, and the public; unequivocally condemns threats, intimidation, and violence; and upholds a simple conviction: in a democracy, disagreements are resolved through debate, never through fear or violence.”

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and French Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard both condemned the harassment targeting Butch last weekend. Pegard also met with the DJ this week to affirm her support for the artist.