This text, originally published by André Markowicz on his Facebook page, looks back at the violent interruptions that occurred on Thursday, November 6, during the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert at the Paris Philharmonic. Markowicz questions the political logic behind these actions and shows how, behind the slogan of boycott, criticism of a state can sometimes shift to the designation of a people “as one entity”.
In light of what is happening in Gaza, I wrote that we should boycott Netanyahu’s Israel in the same way as we boycott Putin’s Russia. Does this mean that I boycott all Russian culture in general, not only classical culture but also contemporary culture? Those who know me know my answer—an answer that has earned me the ever-renewed hatred of Ukrainian nationalists, whom I have always fought, whom I fight today, and whom I will fight tomorrow. The boycott is aimed at economic relations between states (and we are still a long way from that) and, in terms of culture, at those Russian intellectuals and artists who have pledged allegiance to Putin, who support the war of aggression in Ukraine, or even who are profiting from it. On the contrary, I support the artists who have stood up against Putin, those who have left their homeland, those who are suffering the horror of persecution at home. I ask the same for Israel: everything related to economic relations between states (starting with the obvious, military cooperation, and here again, we are far from achieving this), and, in terms of culture, the boycott of artists or institutions that have taken sides with the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the current Israeli government.
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The concert at the Philharmonie de Paris by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was interrupted three times in succession, and the interruptions were extremely violent—unprecedented, it seems to me, at least in France. First, a woman stood up in the middle of the concert, began shouting slogans, and then threw a protest horn (similar to those used in demonstrations intended to be violent). By the time this woman was stopped and the horn was found, the concert had resumed. Then a man took out a very large smoke bomb and set fire to, if not his own seat, at least the seats next to him—I note that he was very close to the musicians. There were more than 2,300 spectators in the hall, and I feel that this fact is not emphasized enough. Imagine the panic caused by the smoke and fire—if other audience members hadn’t thrown themselves on the man waving the smoke bomb—with a rage that I will come back to— there could have been a serious panic in the hall, not to mention the risk of fire: what would have happened if, for one reason or another, the fire had spread to the adjacent seats – how many deaths would we have today? What kind of November 13 attack would we have had on our hands, especially since the smoke bomb scene happened again… Each time, the orchestra—heroic, it must be said—stopped and started again. With increasingly terrible tension. After the first encore—the entire audience standing, moved by the beauty of the performance and the courage of the artists—something happened that, once again, bordered on rage, if not despair. The orchestra played the Israeli national anthem. While the first encore was planned (as is always the case in concerts), the second was not, and after inquiring, I can say on my honor that no, there was no score: they played, obviously from memory, and obviously on an impulse of rage, as well as, sadly, of war.
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Is the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra an official representative of the State of Israel? A quick Google search shows you that no, not at all: it belongs to a very particular type of organization, in which all shares of capital are divided among the artists who compose it, and state subsidies account for only a tiny fraction (less than 10% of the annual budget). Is Lahav Shani, the conductor, a Netanyahu supporter? I won’t insult you by quoting his numerous statements of indignation and protest against Israeli crimes in Gaza—he belongs to the most determined and steadfast opposition to the murderers currently in power. He is a student and friend of Daniel Barenboim, who is the bête noire of Netanyahu’s fanatical nationalists and who has always, throughout his life, campaigned for mutual recognition between Israel and Palestine – who has always maintained an orchestra in which Palestinian children, against all odds, played with Israeli children. And what about the guest soloist, Andras Schiff, one of the greatest living pianists, who, when Trump took power, announced that he would henceforth refuse any invitations to the US?
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Mélenchon, who was the only person in France to refuse to condemn the acts of vandalism that took place during this concert, explained his support for the troublemakers as follows: “The Philharmonic bans Russian artists and allows Israeli artists; it is choosing sides.” Taken aback, I looked up which artists had been banned by the Philharmonic: yes, in 2022, the Philharmonie canceled Valery Gergiev’s planned concert because Gergiev is, by general admission and by his own admission, an unconditional friend of Putin, and because he has strongly and frequently supported the invasion of Ukraine (not to mention supporting Putin’s entire policy): Gergiev must, without a doubt, be subject to sanctions. – So this, for Mélenchon, is the double standard of the Paris Philharmonic…
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So, was there any political justification for this attack on the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra? No, not in the slightest. Because the orchestra—which includes Jews and Arabs—could, on the contrary, be a foreshadowing of what a peaceful Israel could be.
One might think that this attack was the work of uneducated fools, ignorant of what they were attacking.
This is not the case: the attack was premeditated, prepared, and the question was not whether or not these Israelis were supporters of the criminal regime in power, the question was that they were Israelis. And what this attack said was that, for the disrupters, it is the entire Israeli population that is guilty of what is happening in Gaza—in exactly the same way, in a horrific mirror image, that Israeli fascists say that it is the entire population of Gaza that is responsible for October 7: and these two attitudes are reflected, in an even more terrifying mirror image, in Brasillach’s statement after the great roundup of July 16, 1942, when the question arose of what to do with the children. We must, wrote Brasillach, get rid of the Jews “as a whole” (including children). It was indeed the Israelis, “as a whole”, who were singled out for punishment.
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Will we now have to go through metal detectors to go to a show? … There are turning points in the life of a society. I think ours shifted at the moment those smoke bombs were thrown. Why? First of all—but this is not the main reason—because of the outbreak of violence in what had until then remained inviolate. There had been boycott campaigns, there had been petitions (counterproductive, but still…). No, it took hatred to enter a packed theater (there wasn’t a single empty seat), and it took hatred to speak: from then on, there was this terrible reaction from the audience—one of the provocateurs was actually almost lynched, and it was, of course, absolutely terrible. This tension, and the fact that the musicians continued their concert with the same energy, and the vibrant enthusiasm of the audience—an enthusiasm linked to fear and tears (the number of people in tears…), all of this had an electric effect on the musicians themselves, who found themselves, as terrible as it is to write here, at war, and who, through some kind of tragic inspiration, at the very end, during the final encore, performed Hatikvah, turning the evening into what they considered a triumph, which was only a reflection of the hatred they had suffered.
Because it was indeed hatred. And no, it was not hatred for Netanyahu’s hateful policies, but, as it was directed at them, who are opposed to them (I am not saying that there are no Likud members among the 80 or so musicians, but it is clear that these potential members are a tiny minority), it was hatred that, as the musicians sensed, had shifted from anti-Zionism to antisemitism: the target was not the policies of a state or crimes committed by individuals, but, I repeat, all Israelis. And, faced with the hatred they had to respond to, what resonated was a kind of “Fuck You!” (according to Sonia Wieder-Atherton, who was there and told me what happened). Rage responding to hatred.
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That was indeed the terrorists’ goal. And that is indeed the goal of Netanyahu’s entire policy, of which, I say and repeat, Hamas is the best ally in the world, when, in response to the oh-so-well-founded accusations of crimes against humanity and torture, Jewish nationalists respond that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. No, not all of it is. But some of it, unfortunately, is. And all racists are brothers.
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For us in France, too, all this is tragic. Because it shows not only the French left-wing political party LFI’s desire for confrontation, its strategy of civil war. Civil war after defeat. Because it shows that Bardella has nothing to do to get himself into the Élysée: let’s not forget that, according to some polls, the RN already accounts for more than half of the voting intentions on its own (not counting Ciotti or Zemmour or whatever). There can only be a left-wing candidate in the second round if the whole of the left joins forces – but how can you join forces with a party whose leader puts Guerguiev and Shani (and therefore Barenboïm) on the same level – a leader, I would remind you, who continues to say that Zelensky is “president of nothing,” but who considers Putin to be the legitimate president of the Russian Federation. How is it possible to form an alliance, without compromising oneself irrevocably, without betraying the very meaning of one’s struggle, with someone who, objectively and concretely, day after day, acts on the ground as if he wanted to take the place not of Marine Le Pen but of Jean-Marie in the 1980s and 1990s? And so, if no alliance is possible, who in France will be able to resist the fascist tide—organized and financed by Putin—that is slowly and inexorably engulfing the Western world?
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I see these smoke bombs as the harbinger of a great fire.
And, for those who understand, I don’t want to have to hear another “es brennt…” in a few years’ time. [1] The fact is that fire fascinates arsonists.
André Markowicz
Thank you to André Markowicz for allowing us to publish this long post from his Facebook page as an article.
Notes
| 1 | These two words mean “on fire” in Yiddish. They are the title of a poem written in Poland in 1938 by Mordechai Gebirtig. [Editor’s note] |
