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Scotland’s Glasgow Festival of Contemporary Arts Accused of Illegally Discriminating Against Israeli Artists
Palestinian supporters protesting outside a Scotland vs. Israel match at the a UEFA Women’s European Qualifiers at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland on May 31, 2024. Photo: Alex Todd/Sportpix/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A group of pro-Israel lawyers in the United Kingdom has accused The Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Arts of discriminating against Israeli artists and performers by not allowing them to participate in Scotland’s biennial event that was held last month.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has called on the Glasgow City Council and the British Council — both of whom funded the festival — to launch an investigation into Glasgow International, the group announced on Thursday. The event, which took place June 7-23, is Scotland’s largest festival for contemporary art. It is held over the course of three weeks every two years across the city of Glasgow. The festival is managed by Glasgow Life, a charity that organizes cultural and sporting events on behalf of the Glasgow City Council.
On June 21, organizers of this year’s Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Arts, who are also employees of Glasgow Life, announced in an open letter published on Instagram that the 2024 event would be organized in accordance with guidelines of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel. The organizers also falsely accused Israel of genocide and apartheid, and expressed their support for “Palestinian liberation.”
The open letter was signed by Glasgow Festival Director Richard Birkett, Open Program Convenor Siobhan Carroll, Curator Poi Marr, Assistant Curator Pelumi Odubanjo, and Festival Manager Diana Stevenson. All five of them also signed an open letter in December 2023 — two months after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel — that called for a boycott of Israel and falsely claimed Palestinians are being “assassinated” and “massacred by the Israeli military.”
UKLFI pointed out that Glasgow International’s boycott of Israeli artists and performers this year was in violation of the Equality Act of 2010, which states that it is illegal to discriminate against someone providing a public service by not providing them with the opportunity to publicize, promote, and ticket their performances and works. By not offering Israeli artists and performers contracts to work at or for the festival, Glasgow organizers acted illegally, the group of lawyers said in a letter written to the Glasgow City Council and the British Council.
“The staff of this arts organization apparently believe themselves to be taking the ‘high moral ground’ when in fact they are engaging in false slurs,” said UKFLI Director Caroline Turner. “Far from promoting equality or diversity, they are illegally discriminating against a whole race and nationality. We hope that their funders will take note of their illegal and discriminatory behavior and will ensure that this does not happen again.”
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
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