Four people have been charged for their alleged role in disrupting a Paris concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, prosecutors told AFP on Sunday.
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters caused chaos at the concert on Thursday night, when they repeatedly interrupted the show with flares and clashed with audience members, leading to the arrests of three men and one woman.
The concert, which faced heavy scrutiny in the weeks prior, was paused briefly, and the musicians were evacuated from the stage after one protester lit a chair on fire, prompting a fight.
Footage from the scene showed audience members rushing toward the protester after the seat was set ablaze, wrestling the flare from his hands to scattered applause.
“All four individuals involved were formally charged and placed under judicial supervision” after appearing before a judge on Sunday, the prosecutor’s office said.
They are suspected of damaging property, endangering others, possession of incendiary materials, organizing a demonstration on public roads without prior notification, refusing to submit to fingerprinting and identification procedures for inclusion in a police database, and violence involving the use or threat of a weapon, prosecutors said.
This framegrab taken from a video shows incidents in the Pierre-Boulez Hall of the Philharmonie de Paris, after a person ignited a smoke bomb during a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on November 6, 2025. (Jean-Michel TRANSON / AFPTV / AFP)
The visit by the national orchestra had drawn criticism from several groups, including an entertainment workers’ union that condemned Israel’s “crime” during the two-year Gaza war.
“The Paris Philharmonic Hall cannot host the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra without reminding the public of the extremely serious accusations weighing on the leaders of that country or the nature of the crime committed in Gaza,” the union, CGT Spectacle, said.
It added that it viewed the concert as an attempt to bring about the “normalization” of Israel in international settings.
Ahead of the concert, the Paris Philharmonic Hall issued a statement saying it hoped the event would take place “in the best possible conditions.”
It noted that it never demanded that visiting musicians “take a position… on the issue of ongoing conflicts or on sensitive political stakes.” France’s culture minister also said, “Nothing justifies a boycott call for this moment of culture, sharing, and communication.”
Lahav Shani, conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, in an undated photo from circa 2024. (Marco Borggreve)
The Paris Philharmonic condemned the disruptions following the concert.
“Nothing can justify such actions,” it said. “Regardless of individual opinions, it is completely unacceptable to threaten the safety of the public, staff, and artists.”
Yonathan Arfi, the head of the umbrella French Jewish organization CRIF, also condemned the incident, writing on X on Thursday night that the “calls for a boycott and the increasing disruptions are unacceptable.”
“They will never prevent artists targeted by hatred from receiving a standing ovation,” he said, congratulating the musicians for continuing to play despite the “hateful agitators.”
This is not the first time that the Israel Philharmonic’s music director, Lahav Shani, has faced opposition in Europe.
In September, a Belgian festival canceled a performance by the Munich Philharmonic because it was going to be conducted by Shani. Festival organizers said they were “unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude” toward the Israeli government during the Gaza war. German and Belgian leaders panned the decision.
