Management at Tomorrowland, the Belgian electronic dance music festival where police last week quizzed Israelis for alleged war crimes, canceled Israeli DJ Skazi’s show for what he on Saturday called “security considerations” amid anti-Israel agitation.
Separately, venues of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival reportedly canceled shows by British Jews, Philip Simon and Aaron Levene, on Saturday for “security” concerns and Simon’s “views” on Gaza, respectively. Simon said the real reason for the cancelations was antisemitism.
The cancelations in Scotland were of a show titled “Jew-O-Rama” over “staff safety” concerns at Whistlebinkies, a venue taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a major theater event, Simon, a comedian who performs the show with Levene, wrote on Facebook Saturday. Simon’s solo act “Shall I Compere Thee in a Funny Way?” was also dropped by the Banshee Labyrinth, another participating performance venue in the city.
“I am still processing the concept that in 2025 I can be canceled just for being Jewish,” Simon wrote on Facebook.
Whistlebinkies cited “staff security,” whereas the Labyrinth cited politics, writing to Simon that his “views concerning the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine … are in significant conflict with our venue’s stance against the current Israeli government’s policy and actions,” he wrote.
“I have never expressed support for anything other than freeing the hostages and finding a way for peace,” Simon wrote, adding, “As a Jewish person living in Britain it is possible, and increasingly common, to have a love for Israel without supporting the actions of the government.”
Queried by JNS, a spokesperson for the Banshee Labyrinth said: “We found that the views concerning the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine expressed by the performer are in significant conflict with our venue’s stance against the current Israeli government’s policy and actions.” The spokesperson declined to elaborate but insisted the show was not canceled because Simon was Jewish.
The Edinburgh festival and the other venue did not reply by press time to a request by JNS for comment on Simon’s allegations.
DJ Asher Swissa, whose stage name is Skazi, traveled to Belgium last week to perform at the festival for the 14th consecutive year, but “the pressure was too much for the management,” he said of anti-Israel campaigning to ban him from Tomorrowland, which is held in the Belgian town of Boom.
“They worked very hard behind the scenes. Making noise and running news articles in various media, and sadly, it worked,” Swissa told Israel Hayom.
On Instagram, Swissa wrote: “Due to security considerations and our deep commitment to spreading only love and music, my performance at Tomorrowland scheduled for Today, July 26 has been canceled.”
On Friday, the De Morgen newspaper in Belgium reported that objections to Swissa’s performance included his work on the music for a music clip by the Civil Front association from November 2023 in memory of the hundreds of people murdered by terrorists from Gaza at the Supernova music festival the previous month.
It featured an Arabic-language message to the Hamas terrorists who murdered some 1,200 people in Israel. “You murdered hundreds of happy young people who only wanted to dance,” the lyrics read. “You raped women. You came like rats from a sewer. ... We will dance on the ruins of Gaza.”
A spokesperson for Tomorrowland told the Belga news agency: “We continue to have great respect for Skazi’s musical journey and hope to hear his music on one of our stages again in the future.”
Swissa told Israel Hayom, “If they do invite me back, I find it difficult to see myself ever returning,” he said.
However, Swissa had the impression that management at Tomorrowland was not interested in having his act canceled. “They tried to help, people didn’t understand the story, they tried to make the show happen. But the [anti-Israel organization] managed to go after soldiers, so I’m small fry.”
Swissa was referring to the Federal Prosecutor of Belgium’s decision last week to interrogate two Israelis for alleged war crimes based on the complaint of the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation, a group that uses lawfare against Israeli citizens abroad. The two Israelis were released without restrictions following their questioning at Tomorrowland.
