A British venue that had deplatformed a Jewish comedian last year ostensibly over his views on Gaza has accepted that the move was discriminatory against him as a Jewish person, a British magazine reported on Monday.
Banshee Labyrinth accepted this during a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday, the Chortle magazine on comedy reported. The hearing was on a lawsuit that the comedian, Philip Simon, filed against Banshee Labyrinth, according to the report. The venue did not reply by press time to a query by JNS on the subject.
Simon had been due to perform a solo show at the Banshee called “Shall I Compere Thee In A Funny Way,” as part of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In a statement given during the festival in July 2025, the venue said Simon had expressed opinions on social media that “align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations.”
Simon said he’d been deplatformed for being Jewish.
“I have never expressed support for anything other than freeing the hostages and finding a way for peace,” Simon wrote on Facebook.
Judge Roderick Flinn said he would award damages at a later date, according to Chortle.
