Scottish Protests Dog Israeli Dance Troupe
The opening performance of an Israeli dance troupe at the Edinburgh International Festival was disrupted four times last night, as protesters in the audience shouted “free Palestine.”
The Batsheva Dance Company members stopped as the protesters were removed by security, but then continued. The disruption was not a surprise, as pro-Palestinian activists had announced it beforehand.
An Israeli Embassy spokesman said that it was clear the demonstrators were “not motivated by any desire to help the Palestinians or advance peace, but only to sow hatred.
“We are delighted the audience gave Batsheva repeated standing ovations. We call on Britain to condemn disturbances to Israeli cultural performances. We are committed to ensuring that Israeli-British cooperation will continue to flourish.”
The show, which was attended by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat and Israeli ambassador to Britain Daniel Taub, has been dogged by controversy since it was announced.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
