Influencer Poupette Kenza accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, court seized

“I don’t work for any Zionist or Jewish person,” said Poupette Kenza, one of the most popular influencers in France.

“Faced with anti-Semitism, zero tolerance.” Dilcrah, a government body fighting against discrimination, announced on Thursday May 16 that it would refer the matter to the public prosecutor of “anti-Semitic comments” held on social networks by the influencer Poupette Kenza.

In a video message, the influencer with more than a million subscribers on Instagram said on Wednesday: “I am pro-Palestinian, I do not work for any Zionist or Jewish person (…) I have no partner, no agent who is Jewish”. In a second video, she then assured that she had “poorly expressed” and to have “rectified” his comments : “I have nothing against the Jews (..) I just have against the Zionists and those who finance the genocide, those who finance this massacre”added the influencer.

His account was inaccessible early Thursday afternoon on the social network Instagram, which did not respond to requests from AFP. “Boycotting women and men because of their identity or religion is obviously illegal”was indignant on the X network the minister responsible for the fight against discrimination Aurore Bergé, who instructed Dilcrah to make a report.

The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) also announced on that she filed a complaint “for inciting hatred and discrimination”. “Such hateful remarks broadcast to more than a million subscribers endanger Jews”according to the association. “We must act quickly so that social networks are no longer the sounding board for anti-Semitism, especially among the youngest”for its part affirmed the collective We will live, born the day after the bloody attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7.

Poupette Kenza, whose real name is Kenza Benchrif, is one of the most popular influencers on French social networks. She was arrested in 2023 by the Fraud Repression for deceptive commercial practices, after promoting a teeth whitener banned in France. She had agreed to pay 50,000 euros as part of a “criminal transaction”.