Cancellation of Jewish comedians leaves an indelible stain on this year’s Edinburgh Fringe

Under pressure from staff, management at The Pleasance pulled the stand-up’s 2022 show after a single performance over its “extreme” sexism and racism. It simply wasn’t safe for audiences - or workers at the venue - for Sadowitz to be permitted to take to the stage.

This capitulation to the demands of staff remains a stain on the reputation of the Pleasance which, faced with complaints from employees about Sadowitz’s performance, should have invited them to find work elsewhere.

Last week, two fringe venues took decisions to cancel Fringe shows that make the Pleasance’s behaviour pale into insignificance.

Popular venue Whistlebinkies pulled shows by Jewish comedians Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger over “concerns” about staff safety.

In a grotesque display of victim-blaming, these safety claims relate to the suggestion the venue might have needed extra security to ensure the protection of Jewish performers.

In the cases of Simon and Creeger, it appears Jews are being punished for the desire of some bigots to punish Jews.

This instinct to blame the troublesome Jew is not restricted to Whistlebinkies.

Banshee Labyrinth has also announced it will not be hosting a show by Simon.

The venue would like it to be known that it has not cancelled the comedian’s show because he is Jewish. Of course it hasn’t. That would have been indefensible, wouldn’t it?

Rather, according to a spokesperson for Banshee Labyrinth, management “had a duty of care to our customers and staff members to review the political statements and opinions expressed by the performer”.

It’s difficult to know where to begin with nonsense like that.

It is not the business of management at Banshee Labyrinth, or any other venue, to audit the opinions of performers.

Simon, quite understandably, maintains that he has been cancelled simply for being Jewish. There is nothing, he says, controversial about his views on Israel and Palestine which stretch to a desire to see the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists.

Doubling down on its position, the venue issued a statement reading: “We found that the views concerning the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine expressed by the performer are in significant conflict with our venue’s stance against the current Israeli government’s policy and actions

“We feel it is inappropriate for us to provide a platform for performers whose views and actions align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations.”

A recent report into antisemitism in the UK found widespread failure to address anti-Jewish discrimination across the NHS, education, policing, and the arts.

The review - commissioned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and co-authored by the government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, Lord John Mann, and former Conservative defence secretary Dame Penny Mordaunt - highlighted a disturbing trend for Jewish people to be blamed for the actions of the Israeli government.

Among the troubling findings contained within the report was the widespread feeling among Jewish employees of the NHS that the issue of antisemitism had been swept under the carpet and the sense of unease among some Jewish patients about a service that should be taking care of them.

In an interview with the BBC, Mann said Jews were “going about their everyday life, particularly at work, and suddenly being held to account for what's happening in the Middle East”.

It would appear that’s precisely what has happened in the cases of Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger.

Within hours of the horrific Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, figures across the worlds of entertainment and politics began disgracing themselves.

The fact that islamist terrorists had murdered more than 1,200 jews - raping and torturing many before their execution - was to be minimised. Instead, the focus was to be the response of the “Zionists” (the first rule of antisemitism club is you always call it anti-Zionism club).

It is, of course, possible to oppose the policies and actions of the current government of Israel without expressing deeply antisemitic views. It is a great pity so many people with public platforms and an interest in the middle east seem incapable of doing this.

Through participation in the Israel-erasing fantasy of that “from the river to the sea” chant - or in cheering a rapper’s call for the deaths of Israeli soldiers - so many self-styled “progressives” have exposed themselves as antisemites.

The cancellation of shows by two Jewish comedians leaves an indelible stain on this year’s fringe. The silence - bar the occasional noble exception - of other performers about the treatment of Simon and Creeger is despicable.

If two venues had cancelled shows by performers of Muslim heritage, there would - quite rightly - have been a serious backlash. Across television news channels, politicians of every tradition would have been talking about the need for tolerance. The venues would have been facing boycotts rather than receiving garlands.

The appalling treatment of Simon and Creeger has merited barely a blink of reaction from Scottish politicians.

Those who cancelled those comedians’ shows are enemies of the art-form they promote. Comedy dies under the “care” of the censor.

There is nothing offensive in the mainstream views of Simon and Creeger. Their only outrage is to be unashamedly Jewish.

But, even if the pair were every bit as wildly, wilfully offensive as Jerry Sadowitz, there would still be no justification for the way in which they have been treated.

The argument against the cancellation of shows by Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger is not just a pro-free speech one. It is also an anti-racism one.