ByKaren Glaser, Karen Glaser
1 min read
ByKaren Glaser, Karen Glaser
"I made it," gasped a smiling Lisa Epstein as she walked into the lobby of Edinburgh's Central Hall on Wednesday.
She and around 800 other visitors to the International Shalom Festival, a day-long celebration of Israel at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, had to run a gauntlet of jeers, heckles and abuse from pro-Palestinian activists as they arrived at the prestigious venue.
Shouts from the 150-strong baying crowd included "racist scum" and "shame on you".
The protesters, most of them members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, also chanted "your tickets are covered in Palestinian blood" and held banners which read "boycott and isolate Israel".
The sound of bombs exploding could be heard from a PA system. At one point, according to one witness, visitors were taunted with Nazi salutes, although this was firmly denied by several protesters.
Nigel Goodrich, founder of Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland which jointly organised the event with StandWithUs, said: "It started at 8am and got noisier as the day progressed. I have had complaints from many visitors, but especially from women who say their children have been called racist."
Edinburgh resident Susie Kelpie. added: "It's vile, intimidating and quite normal for any Israeli-flavoured event in this city."
I brought my African friend here," said Koren Muscovich, "and the protesters screamed 'traitor' at him when he walked past. Luckily, he wasn't scared - he just thought they were ridiculous."
Daniel Bar-Feuerstein, the husband of comedian Hadar Galron, one of the acts at the festival, said he wanted to give the activists a message of "light and love".
"I really mean it," he said. "I'm sorry they've been so badly misled and so badly misinformed about my country."
This story was updated on September 22, 2016 to amend the headline ‘Nazi salutes and abuse greet Israel festival-goers’ and make clear that a claim that there were Nazi salutes was denied.