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Soon after, Oi Va Voi, a British Jewish band drawing from Jewish culture and incorporating klezmer music into their sound, had two gigs cancelled, in Brighton and in Bristol, as a result of pressure from pro-Palestine activists because their guest singer, Zohara, was Israeli.
Josh Breslaw, co-founder and drummer of Oi Va Voi, told attendees at Parliament’s Churchill Room that his band’s cancellation was “both racist and xenophobic”.
He went on: “To be Jewish in artistic spaces today means that strangers and activists believe they have the right to demand you take a position on issues that are most important to them.”
He continued that if an artist declines to take a public position, then a position would nevertheless be taken for them.
“You will then be judged on that position someone took for you, and the most likely outcome is that you will be publicly cancelled, as happened to me and my band, or silently pushed out, as is happening to many others. My band was pulled up, questioned and cancelled because of our Jewish heritage. That’s racist.”
Huddleston added that one of the “most serious” and “troubling” findings of the report was the level of antisemitism in the arts world.
“The evidence gathered suggests that Jewish and Israeli artists are disproportionately affected by organised pressure, and that Jewish artists are too often subjected to exceptional scrutiny, exclusion or suspicion.
“Jewish artists and Jewish cultural life become treated uniquely contentiously, uniquely risky or somehow inherently political. But that should trouble all of us.
“Where Jewish cultural life is treated as inherently problematic, or where Jewish identity itself becomes a trigger for pressure and distrust, that should concern anyone who values fairness, democracy and the integrity of our public culture.”
Alongside the report, which is co-authored by Professor Jo Phoenix, Fita also launched the Art Beyond Boycott Toolkit, a practical response to boycott pressure that provides clear guidance to venues and arts organisations, step-by-step tools, templates and checklists.
Huddleston said of the toolkit: “It recognises both lawful protest and artistic independence. It’s not just diagnosing a problem. It’s actually helping the sector respond.”
Meanwhile, Kay pointed to “the extent to which antisemitism has become embedded, denied or minimised within parts of the art sector”. She said that, while people had been “reluctant to face this honestly”, the report makes the problem of antisemitism in the arts “very clear”.
“Jewish artists and Jewish cultural life have become especially vulnerable to exclusion, scrutiny and silence.
“And what’s so disturbing is that this can happen in very quiet ways… more often through the slow withdrawal of support, the coded language of sensitivity, that feeling that Jewish identity itself is somehow too contentious, too political, too difficult to deal with.
“This is not a fair or serious way to deal with the issues. People become nervous. Opportunities dry up, invitations disappear, institutions equivocate.”
Other speakers on the night were Glee Club CEO Mark Tughan and Brit Award and Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Roisin Murphy. JK Rowling’s agent, Neil Blair, also attended and thanked Fita for its report.
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