Scottish First Minister Swinney Pledges to Protect Free Speech but Defends Banning of Jewish Comedians by Edinburgh Fringe Festival

 

A few days ago, I wrote about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival's decision to cancel performances by Jewish comedians Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger. In the case of the former, there was an objection to Simon attending a vigil for the hostages held by Hamas and in the latter "security concerns".

In a classic case of political doubletalk, Scottish First Minister John Swinney pledged to protect free speech in remarks opening the Edinburgh Fringe Festival while defending the festival's decision to bar the Jewish comedians. Swinney stated in his remarks:

Freedom of expression is under attack both at home and abroad.

I want to ensure that Scotland, the birth of the Enlightenment, remains a country of robust debate and inquiry.

I firmly believe that arts and culture must be able to challenge us, to ask tough questions and to force us to look at things from different perspectives. 

But this evidently doesn't apply to Simon or Creeger's freedom of expression:

I think the individual venues will make an assessment of their circumstances and the issues around security that might need to be considered.

I live in an environment where issues of security are considered all the time about my whereabouts so I can't dismiss these issues, where security concerns are raised, but I think that has to be very carefully considered in the steps that are taken about judgements by individual venues.

It is very telling that Swinney speaks of his own security issues. Yet unlike Simon and Creeger, Swinney is not cancelled. He is free to speak. 

Yet I wonder how seriously security issues are truly considered when it comes to Swinney because pro-Hamas agitators would disrupt a subsequent appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival seven times before he caved in and claimed Israel was committing "genocide" against Gaza. 

So why shouldn't Simon or Creeger be allowed to perform? As comedians, I'm sure they could have taken the piss out of pro-Hamas agitators. Perhaps they could have taken a page out of singer Regina Spektor's book. When audience members at a concert in Portland, Oregon shouted, "Free Palestine!!!", she retorted "You're just yelling at a Jew," and "You can leave. This isn't an internet comments section."

Let's be honest. To the extent there is a security issue it is not with Jewish comedians, but with pro-Hamas hooligans interested only in intimidation and not civil discourse. Pressure should be brought to bear upon these anti-Semitic agitators, not Jewish comedians. Of course, this is difficult when pressure is brought to bear solely upon Israel, not Hamas.