Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, August 15, 2024

Australian orchestra cancels concert with pianist who said IDF targets journalists

By Canaan Lidor 15 August 2024, 3:34 pm 5 Edit

Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra cancels a concert by a pianist over his onstage remark about the killing of journalists in Gaza, and then reportedly calls the cancellation “an error.”

The move follows remarks by the pianist, Jayson Gillham, during a solo performance on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia, where he dedicated a musical piece to “the journalists of Gaza,” adding a comment about “targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were traveling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets.”

The Orchestra pulls Gillham from a concert planned for Thursday in response to this, but later cancels the concert altogether, citing security reasons. Australia’s ABC broadcaster quotes an unnamed spokesperson of the Orchestra as describing the decision to pull Gillham from the concert as an “error.”

In a statement after the concert’s cancelation, the Orchestra writes that it “maintains that a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment, we acknowledge Jayson’s concerns for those in the Middle East and elsewhere.”

Gillham and the Orchestra are in contact with each other about rescheduling the concert, ABC reports.

Dozens of journalists and people described as such have died in Gaza, allegedly as a result of Israel’s actions against Hamas there. The IDF denies that it targets journalists. Some of the deceased journalists were later shown to have served in terrorist organizations or have significant ties to them.

Gillham is on record as saying at his solo performance Sunday, “The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.”

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