John Cleese cancels planned Israel shows as his tone on country turns sour

British comedian and actor John Cleese has cancels his scheduled performances in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The Israeli production company behind the planned performances states that the reason for the cancellation was threats from the BDS movement.

For the last several days, the comedian has been reposting anti-Israel comments and media on his X account, including false claims, a video of actor Mandy Patinkin raging against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and actor Mark Ruffalo railing against his Jewish friends. Cleese was previously not known to have a stance particularly critical of Israel, and performed there a few years ago.

Alon York Productions issues a statement, noting that all tickets to Cleese’s shows in Israel had been sold out.

Cleese had already postponed his trip to Israel from June to November, following the war with Iran.

He had been scheduled to perform four shows, one in Jerusalem and three in Tel Aviv, from November 26 to December 1.

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