The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra concert, conducted by Lahav Shani, was interrupted three times on Thursday evening at the Paris Philharmonie by pro-Palestinian activists using smoke bombs and shouts. Despite tensions and clashes with the audience, the music ultimately resumed and prevailed. Four people, including one on a security watchlist, were placed in custody.
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra concert began over an hour late, shortly after 8 p.m. on Thursday evening at the Paris Philharmonie, due to reinforced security measures. Outside, police trucks were stationed, while inside, a full house was on edge amid boycott calls from CGT Spectacle and the Palestine Action France collective.
Ten minutes after Lahav Shani raised his baton, a first shout – 'Israel assassin' – rang out, accompanied by yellow tracts thrown into the audience and a dull buzz from a smoke bomb. The orchestra paused before resuming. Fifteen minutes later, a second smoke bomb was lit, sparking strong reactions: spectators stood to confront the militants, attempting to eject them with punches.
In the first half, with Sir András Schiff at the piano, whistles forced an initial stop. Then, a hooded man appeared on the balcony with a smoke bomb, intercepted and struck by several spectators before being removed by security. 'I briefly thought it was a terrorist attack,' one witness recounts. A young girl cried and left amid the confusion, as Lahav Shani and the musicians temporarily left the stage.
Despite the fear – 'We thought it would set the place on fire,' says a woman in her fifties – and the dangers highlighted by Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who noted risks to spectators' lives, the music resumed more intensely. Laurence Ferrari, in the audience, described an initial paralysis followed by an emotional restart. Four activists were detained, including one on a security watchlist.
This incident fits into a broader context of growing pressures on Israeli artists in Europe, linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with sources reporting no major contradictions on the key facts.
