Nigel Goodrich, founder of the International Shalom Festival at the Fringe, said that the three-day event was an apolitical celebration of Israel’s cultural diversity
An Israeli festival will go ahead in Edinburgh today despite calls for a boycott by pro-Palestinian supporters who are planning protests.
Nigel Goodrich, founder of the International Shalom Festival at the Fringe, said that performers would not tolerate harassment or intimidation by anyone using the event as a focal point for criticism of the Israeli state.
He said that the three-day event, now in its second year, was an apolitical celebration of Israel’s cultural diversity and pointed out that a mixture of Jewish, Muslim and Christian performers were taking part.
Critics called the event a projection of Israeli “soft power” because performers receive state funding. As many as 100 protesters are planning to gather outside Drummond Community High School today to disrupt the launch.
A week ago a group of 20 artists, academics and campaigners, including the director Ken Loach, wrote an open letter calling for a boycott of the event because of Israel’s “continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and the ongoing denial of the right of return of millions of Palestinian refugees”.
Responding to suggestions that the festival had a political agenda, Mr Goodrich said: “All governments fund the arts. Governments fund roads and hot water, too. It doesn’t make sense to target us in this way. We have Muslims, Christians and Jews all coming together to promote peace and coexistence at the festival. If this is a propaganda event for anything, it is a propaganda event for peace.”
He added that the main sponsors of the event were private individuals, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor and an Edinburgh-based donor whose mother was persecuted for being a Jew.
We were terribly hurt at the time — not only by the protesters but also by the Scottish people
Highlights of the festival include an exhibition of paintings by Muslim, Jewish and Christian women and a talk by the director-general of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.
A year after an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper in Glasgow was murdered by a Sunni Muslim in a sectarian killing, the challenges faced by members of the minority sect and the protection they receive in Israel will be discussed.
However, other events on the programme have led to controversy, including a screening of the 2016 documentary Eyeless in Gaza, which critics described as a “propaganda film”.
Mick Napier, of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “We know this event is connected to the Israeli embassy and it is effectively celebrating the activities of an army that has been accused of war crimes.
“The idea that this is some sort of peace festival is an illusion. It is a projection of soft power at the same time the state of Israel uses hard power closer to home.”
Mr Napier said that the group was not opposed to Israelis who perform at the festival but would protest against any shows funded by the Israeli state.
In 2014, an Israeli hip-hop opera called The City had to cancel its run after protesters targeted it in Edinburgh. Organisers at the Underbelly, which hosted The City, pulled the show because crowds of about 150 protesters under the banner of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Society were disrupting 14 other shows at the venue and the neighbouring Gilded Balloon.
The Incubator Theatre group, which put on the show, are returning to Edinburgh this year to perform in the Shalom Festival but its director, Amit Ulman, admitted that the experience had left a bitter taste.
“We were terribly hurt at the time — not only by the protesters but also by the Scottish people because we felt like more could have been done to protect our right to perform.
“We faced a real dilemma this year and were in two minds about coming back but the coexistence theme of the Shalom festival felt right.”
Mr Ulman said his performers were in a defiant mood and would counter any allegations made against them.
“We are not politicians but now we feel obligated to call out the lies.”
Political leaders in Scotland and festival organisers have consistently backed the cause of the Shalom Festival. Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale have all pledged to support the festival.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society reinforced its dedication to open access and freedom of expression. “We support the right of all participants of the Fringe and members of the public to hold and express differing political views,” it said, “but we also believe in an artist’s right to freedom of expression, and that the curtailment of this freedom is contrary to the fundamental ethos of the festival.”
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