Batsheva youth dance troupe heckled in Britain

JTA — Anti-Israel protesters disrupted a performance by the youth troupe of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company in Birmingham, England.

One protester was arrested for racial harassment after using a racial slur about Jews toward a ticket holder outside the venue before the Tuesday evening performance, the Jewish Chronicle of London reported. He was later released at the request of the victim.

Five other protesters were removed from the audience for disturbing the performance. They shouted slogans such as “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Birmingham is the fourth stop in England for the troupe, which has been picketed and disrupted at each venue.

Tuesday night’s protest was organized by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine and by Sue Blackwell, an anti-Israel academic and former lecturer in English at the University of Birmingham, according to the Chronicle.

A performance scheduled for Brighton was canceled due to the high cost of security.