UK'S Department for Culture worked with Israeli embassy to pressure Tricycle Theatre

-

A letter has been published that shows the UK government cooperated with the Israeli Embassy in pressuring the Tricycle Theatre over its public row with the UK Jewish Film Festival in August.

As Israel was bombing Gaza, the Tricycle Theatre asked the festival to forego Israeli embassy funding, on the basis that, given the ongoing bloodshed, it was "inappropriate to accept financial support from any government agency involved."

Though the Tricycle management offered to provide alternative funding, the Jewish Film Festival insisted on the embassy link, thus withdrawing the festival (see a timeline of events here).

According to campaigners, the newly published letter was sent by an official in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport "to a member of the public who had asked for an explanation of Secretary of State Sajid Javid's public denunciation of the Tricycle Theatre."

The activists note that the letter "repeatedly refers to anti-Semitism and threats to freedom of speech, while offering no evidence that the theatre had been guilty of either."

The official also confirms that the department "kept closely in touch with the Israeli Ambassador during this unfortunate chain of events and assured him of the Government's commitment to challenge anti-Semitism wherever it might arise." more

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israeli warships open fire at Gaza fishermen

-
Image
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli warships opened fire at fishermen off the coast of Gaza City early Wednesday, a fisherman said. A fisherman told Ma'an Israeli ships fired gunshots at Palestinian fishing boats, and that a shell hit the water near the boats. No injuries were reported. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that "warning shots were fired in the air," without providing further details. Palestinian fishermen are only allowed to venture three nautical miles from Gaza's shore, though official Israeli-Palestinian agreements previously settled on 20 nautical miles. more
Read more

Egyptians continue to keep Gaza's only exit closed

-
Image
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – The Gaza Strip’s only exit to the outside world, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the enclave, was shut down for the second consecutive day on Saturday. Sources at the terminal confirmed to Ma’an that the crossing point was still closed. On Friday, Palestinian official Mahir Abu Sabha said that Egyptian officials at the site informed the Palestinian side it would remain closed until further notice. more
Read more

Support striking Palestinian quarry workers demanding their rights from Israeli employer

-
Image
On 16 June, 35 Palestinian workers at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim (in area C, east of Jerusalem, in the Occupied West Bank) began a strike. The workers, organized with the independent union WAC-Ma'an, are demanding an end to exploitation and humiliation, and insist on signing a first collective agreement. Salit Quarries’ main customer is Readymix Industries (Israel). The total reliance of Salit Quarry on Readymix as their biggest and by far the most important customer puts responsibility on Readymix to make sure that their clients abides by labour laws and safeguards elementary rights for the workers of Salit. We call upon Readymix to urge the Salit management to terminate this unnecessary strike by signing the collective agreement with the workers and WAC-Ma’an. Click this protest link to send your message. The text of the message is as follows: I write to you to express my grave concern about the failure of Salit management to sign a collective agreement with the workers of ...
Read more