Pro-Israel fundraiser nixed in London following threats.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A London theater where Douglas Murray was going to host a pro-Israel fundraiser Sunday canceled the evening hours before its start after employees were threatened if they came to work, but the tables were turned when an even bigger crowd attended in a different venue.
Staff of the Apollo Theater received “threatening emails” after an unidentified colleague gave their addresses to an anti-Israel activist, said the event’s organizer, Technion UK CEO Alan Aziz, and backed out of their commitment to come run the fundraiser for reserve soldiers who attend the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
St. John’s Wood Synagogue stepped up as last-minute hosts, and Murray, a prominent author and journalist who has defended Israel eloquently and often in the media during its ongoing war against Hamas, said he gave his talk to almost a thousand people instead of the 800 that the theater could hold.
“Wonderful event to a capacity audience in London,” he posted to X afterwards. “Shame on the Apollo Theatre for bowing to the mob. But London’s Jews will not be intimidated and neither will I.”
Irrespective of Israel, Murray has often talked of the Islamist danger to England that is being ignored by the powers-that-be. This growing population, he has maintained, are intimidating ordinary Britons without fear of arrest if they break the law.
Referring to this particular case, he wrote, “We have arrived at the point where theatres in London no longer feel safe to support free speech – or at least not when the subject is about Jews or Israel.”
“When even the threat of a threat is enough to cause such fear amongst staff members that they refuse to show up to work, we all have a very big problem,” he added.
Aziz told the Jewish News that the theater owners sincerely regretted their inability to hold the event because they couldn’t find appropriate replacements in time.
“The Apollo were very understanding and apologized,” Aziz said. “They did everything possible to try to make it work.”
Murray, who is not shy about showing his contempt for Muslim extremists, posted again to X to mock a handful of demonstrators who had come to protest his appearance in front of the wrong venue.
“Well done for wasting your evening screaming outside the wrong theatre you cowards,” he wrote. “I’m sure the people of my country loved you screaming at them.”
Speaking to British-Iranian political commentator Mahyar Tousi afterwards, Murray voiced his outrage over the whole incident, saying passionately, “I don’t recognize our country anymore, I really don’t. I don’t know why we have given in to Islamists and terrorists…. Why is it that Saturday after Saturday people parade through the streets of London, calling for jihad, praising Hamas…and defiling our sacred war monuments? Why do they get to do that … but I can’t speak in a theater.”
“Why is it that if you call for violence against Jews day after day on the streets of London, that’s AOK with the Metropolitan Police but if Jews want to congregate in central London that’s apparently not OK and we’ll have to retreat to another venue?” he continued. “I’m not a victim here…. I’m not going to shut up, I’ll continue speaking. This is my country, London is my city, and I expect to be able to do what I want in my city.”