London Theater Cancels Douglas Murray’s Pro-Israel Fundraiser, Citing Threats to Employees By David Zimmermann
A theater in central London canceled British journalist Douglas Murray’s pro-Israel event at the last minute after employees refused to work Sunday night due to outside pressure.
Staff at the Apollo Theatre backed out of working the public event on Sunday after receiving threats via email, Technion UK CEO Alan Aziz told Jewish News. Technion UK is the nonprofit that organized the fundraiser, in which Murray was set to dialogue with British actress Louisa Clein in front of an audience to raise money for Israeli soldiers. The event was eventually moved to a new location.
Staff at the theater can decide individually whether to work events on Sunday, when the theater is normally closed, Aziz said.
“The Apollo told us that they had struggled to put together enough staff to work at the evening, but that eventually they did have a working crew,” he said.
However, the number of Apollo employees willing to work the event dwindled when an anonymous person at the theater shared the email addresses of the employees with someone outside the theater who opposes Israel amid its war with Hamas.
“All of them received threatening emails and told the management that they no longer wanted to work,” Aziz said.
In addition to the threats, the theater company backed out because it must use approved staff who are trained in evacuation and fire-security procedures. If it doesn’t, its insurance could be invalidated.
“The Apollo were very understanding and apologized. They did everything possible to try to make it work,” Aziz added.
Consequently, Apollo reneged on its agreement to host the event by early Sunday afternoon, leading Murray and Technion to find another venue in a few hours, which they ultimately did. Almost 1,000 people attended the fundraiser after it was moved to a new venue. More than 800 tickets were initially sold for the Apollo.
Following the event, Murray said a “capacity audience” filled the undisclosed venue. “Shame on the Apollo Theatre for bowing to the mob. But London’s Jews will not be intimidated and neither will I,” he posted on X.
Earlier Sunday, Murray announced his conversation with Clein was still moving forward despite the last-minute cancellation by Apollo.
“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,” the journalist posted. “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.”
Murray, a prominent conservative commentator and fellow at the National Review Institute, also responded to a video showing Palestinian supporters protesting outside the Apollo, even though he wasn’t speaking there. “Well done for wasting your evening screaming outside the wrong theatre you cowards. I’m sure the people of my country loved you screaming at them,” he said.
Nimax Theatres, which owns the Apollo, did not respond to National Review’s request for comment.
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