Online abuse ahead of Scottish festival 'worst' ever experienced by Palestinian musician
Reem Kelani said she had never experienced such online abuse ahead of a performance
A Palestinian musician has said the online backlash and hatred against her ahead of her performance at a Scottish festival is the “worst” she has ever experienced and warned of a “co-ordinated online attack” on the event.
Reem Kalani, who is due to perform at Art27 Scotland’s Culture=Life festival in Edinburgh on Saturday, said she had faced a barrage of abuse on her social media accounts, as well as those belonging to other organisations which had promoted her performance at the event.
Helen Trew, chief executive of Art 27 Scotland, said the festival overall had faced a "daily backlash" on social media, warning there was a "cultural censorship" of Palestinian arts.
Ms Kalani, who is performing Palestinian folk music with her trio at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, said: “I’ve been abused culturally and personally.”
She said attacks ranged from her personal appearance and religion and ethnicity, to jokes about Jihad and starving children in Gaza.
Posts included “guys I think I found the reason for Gazan food shortage” and “should have a festival, maybe call it, oh…I don’t know…….Nova….?”, referencing the music festival in Israel that was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Ms Kalani, 61, who was born in Manchester and grew up in Kuwait before returning to the UK, said she had experienced abuse before. But she said the backlash ahead of the festival in Edinburgh was the worst she had faced.
She said: “As a Palestinian, I’m used to it, it’s to be expected. But this has been the worst [comments] I have ever seen in my life. It has never been like this before.
“I love Scotland. I’ve worked with Scottish artists before and my experience of performing in Scotland has been wonderful, so it surprised me. It feels like a co-ordinated online attack. This can’t be ordinary Scottish people.”
Ms Kelani, who has performed at Scottish events in the past, including Celtic Connections, plays with a band of non-Arabic musicians whom she says “can’t believe” the hate she has received.
“I’m a political activist, but when I’m on stage, the art speaks for itself,” she said.
Ms Trew said the festival’s social media accounts had suffered repeated accusations of policy violations every day - resulting in their posts being temporarily suspended - as well as abusive comments aimed at Palestinian culture.
Art 27 Scotland was named from Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states “everyone has the right freely to participate in cultural life and to enjoy the arts”.
Ms Trew said: “Facebook and Instagram are our whole marketing strategy and [the attacks] are being managed in a way that that is what is being closed down and constantly disrupted. The cultural sector is being censored.”
Ms Trew said the event was “managing risk” surrounding the festival, but vowed to go ahead. Some audience members have already asked if it is safe for them to attend the festival’s events.
She said: “Whether people come and protest and if they come peacefully, that is their right to do that. But we don’t know where the level of hate that is being stirred up through social media is coming from. There is a culture of fear being generated.”
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