Glasgow City Council and the British Council, have been asked to investigate illegal discrimination against Israeli artists, who were not allowed to participate in a Glasgow based International Arts Festival.

The Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Arts, which took part in June, was organized by a team who advertised on Instagram that this year’s event would be organized in accordance with  the  principles of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).

According to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), the boycott of Israeli artists and performers was illegal  as it discriminated against Israeli artists, in contravention of Section 29 (1) (a) of the Equalities Act, by not providing them with the service of publicising, promoting and ticketing their performances and works.

UKLFI has written to two of the funders of the festival – Glasgow City Council and the British Council, to point out that the festival organisers have acted illegally and discriminated against Israelis in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

The Festival also discriminated against Israeli artists in contravention of Section 39 of the Act by not offering them contracts to work at or for the festival.

The Instagram post, put up by several named members of the organisation that was administering the Festival,  falsely accused Israel of genocide and apartheid, and stated their support for “Palestinian Liberation”.

Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: “The staff of this arts organisation apparently believe themselves to be taking the ‘high moral ground’ when in fact they are engaging in false slurs.  Far from promoting equality or diversity, they are illegally discriminating against a whole race and nationality.  We hope that their funders will take note of their illegal and discriminatory behaviour and will ensure that this does not happen again.”