Was a French Philosopher Ejected from a Left-Wing Event for Being Jewish? Probably Not.
The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was expelled from a political gathering on Paris’ Place de la République by angry protestors on Saturday night. He had been attempting to join Nuit debout, an Occupy-style grassroots movement that has been holding nightly meetings in opposition to proposed labor reforms. Finkielkraut was there for over an hour before he got into an argument with activists and was heckled as a “fascist.”
It remains unclear what sparked the conflagration, but initial reports in English-language media have implied that Finkielkraut’s Jewishness was somehow a factor. The JTA report on the contretemps noted that Finkielkraut is “a declared Zionist” and a supporter of the liberal Zionist group JCall. The meme that Finkielkraut was targeted as a Jew has begun to circulate on Twitter as a result of this story.