Jewish audience members about to see a performance of Fiddler on the Roof on Monday evening came face-to-face with anti-Israel protesters inside Regent’s Park cafe.
Protesters wielding Palestinian flags shouted “Zionists” at Jewish audience members and told them: “You are an embarrassment to England.”
One Jewish audience member called Martine said: “It got very heated; it was awful.”
The cafe, which is 200m from Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, was full of people about to see the final preview performance of the famed Jewish show. The theatre itself has stringent security, but the cafe is open to all members of the public.
Theatregoer Martine was having dinner with her family before the show when she saw a group of between six and twenty protesters in the cafe with Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
Tony Price, 73, also in the cafe said when he saw the flag-wielding crowd, “I went up to one of the men who was carrying a flag and I said, ‘Your presence is not welcome here.’”
Price claimed, “There was no reason for them to be there other than trying to antagonise Jews. They weren’t marching up and down the street, they came into a cafe where they knew lots of Jews would be and they tried to rile everyone up.”
After he confronted the group, Price said: “90 years ago, that’s what we should have done, and we didn’t. We have been pushed around for thousands of years and I'm not going to do it anymore.”
Martine added that the iconic musical had more resonance after the incident: “It is happening today, they are trying to get rid of us again, it is exactly the same situation.”
Watching the musical after the incident “made me proud to be Jewish,” Price said.
Martine added: “I was shaking, but they do not scare me. Unfortunately, I feel like we have to stand up for ourselves, we cannot carry on letting them intimidate us. We're not going anywhere.
“I had a lovely evening, it was a wonderful show."
Others in the cafe filmed the incident and shared it on social media, where X users were swift condemn the protesters.
Head of Policy at CST, Dave Rich, tweeted: “Fiddler on the Roof isn’t just a Jewish musical: it’s the family story of most Jewish families in this country. Holding an anti-Israel protest there is pure antisemitism.”
Actress and JC columnist Tracy-Anne Oberman wrote: “They attempted to hound me for doing [the Merchant of Venice] now these ‘Freedom Fighters’ are attacking Fiddler on The Roof - both productions set way before Israel even existed. Jew hate is Jew hate. Don’t look away. Especially people in the arts.”
A spokesperson for The Royal Parks said: “We are aware of an incident that occurred on Monday 5 August at the Regent’s Bar and Kitchen. Enforcement of the law is a matter for the Metropolitan Police.
“We welcome staff, volunteers and visitors from every background, irrespective of race, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, social class, religion or belief.”
