the Café de la Danse, in Paris, will no longer invite Israeli or Palestinian artists

The Café de la Danse, an essential scene in the Bastille district of Paris, will no longer invite Israeli or Palestinian artists. The performance hall, with a capacity of 500 seats, announced this “regrettable decision» Thursday on his Instagram account, wishing to avoid that “the Café de la Danse, a strictly cultural place, becomes a platform, or worse, a place of confrontation“. The press release also specifies that the rental contracts for the room contain “for several months” a clause prohibiting “any political demonstration, flag or symbol on stage of any country».

The Café de la Danse ensures that the international situation “is at the heart of [ses] concerns» but justifies his radical decision by “the great tensions which currently reign“. And to conclude: “We deplore all the victims and pray for peace.” This choice of programming comes a few days after the concert by the artist Flèche Love, the opening act of which was provided by Palestinian singer Bashar Murad. In a publication on her Instagram account on Wednesday, Flèche Love, whose real name is Amina Cadelli, confirmed the existence of the famous clause in the contract to prohibit any political demonstration on stage. She claims that the managers of the venue informed her on the day of the concert, even though the program had been known for a long time, that the presence of Bashar Murad “worried them».

Keffiyehs and Palestinian flags in the audience

«They informed us that they would particularly monitor his concert, and that they would end the evening at the slightest mention of the situation in Palestine.continues Flèche Love. The Café de la Danse wanted to muzzle us, censor us. We felt in our flesh the invisibility of the Palestinian question, more than any other political statement. Bashar’s life is political.” Ignoring warnings, the 34-year-old Swiss-Algerian invited Bashar Murad to join her on stage at the end of her concert so he could sing It’s a Hell (C’est un enfer, ndlr)piece in the shape of “explicit call for peace and justice in his country, Palestine».

Telerama reports that a person in the pit shouted “Free Palestine !» and that some spectators tied keffiyehs on their heads. Bashar Murad himself grabbed a Palestinian flag from the audience. “I spoke with all the more fervor as I had been told to remain silent, he explains. As a Palestinian, I don’t have the luxury of being political or not.» These last minutes of the concert thus directly contravened the clause of the contract.

Calls for boycott

Loïc Barrouk, manager of the Café de la Danse, explains to Telerama that Bashar Murad «should not have been invited“, but that he only learned that he was Palestinian the day before the concert. “In this period of tension, we have a great responsibility towards the publicinsists the manager. Avoiding excesses, or even possible confrontations, is part of my job. In order to protect the room, I therefore opted for neutrality.»

In reaction to what she describes as “act of violence”, but also to support “the Palestinian population bruised by bombs», Flèche Love has announced its intention to no longer play on the stage of the Café de la Danse, nor to see other concerts there. “We have already seen concerts at the Café de la Danse where speech seemed free, on many political subjects, while remaining in a democratic spirit“, she laments. On social networks, several Internet users were moved by the decision of the Café de la Danse to close the door to Israeli or Palestinian artists. “Sad», «Ridicule», «The giga honte», «Abusive and unacceptable», We can read in bulk among the reactions, some calling for censorship, the violation of freedom of expression. Others going so far as to call for a boycott.