Cultural boycott campaigners hammered another nail into the coffin of freedom of expression last week by again showing their willingness to embrace censorship and silence fellow artists.
A group calling themselves "Artists Right 2 Say No" organised a panel discussion in response to the Tricycle Theatre rumpus over Israeli funding for the UK Jewish Film festival.
In answer to the question, "Can arts organisations say 'no' to embassy funding?", panellists and audience members concluded, unsurprisingly, that they could if the "integrity" of the organisation was at risk. To establish when this "integrity" had been violated, playwright and panellist Tanika Gupta suggested theatres implement an "ethical policy".
Given the exclusive Israel focus of the group, one can only assume this would involve some kind of good/bad list system with "Israel" written under "Bad" and "Rest of the world" marked under "Good". Or perhaps it would take the form of a moral mission statement to help theatres decide which state funding was integrity-proof.
More worryingly, the group then moved on to the planning of protests outside UKJFF venues – as it is no longer being held at the Tricycle – to warn spectators that the film they are about to see enjoyed funding from the morally reprehensible state of Israel, which donated the princely sum of £1,400 to the entire festival.
Freedom of expression is offered to all but Israel
And therein lies the problem with these cultural boycott groups: they are so absolutely sure they are right, to the point of excluding any other views. There were at most 200 people in that lecture hall and yet they superciliously believed they spoke for all artists and that those who did not agree had simply not yet been enlightened.
It was the same kind of tunnel-visioned thinking that led to the closure of Jerusalem-based Incubator Theatre's play The City at Edinburgh Festival Fringe last summer. Once again, the anti-Israel boycotters were out in force with picket lines, protests, and an open letter signed by over 50 of Scotland's cultural figures.
One Scottish playwright, David Greig, even patronisingly set up a Kickstarter fund to enable Israeli companies to perform at the Fringe without taking tainted money from the Israeli government - apparently unable to see the irony of claiming Israeli state funding came with political strings attached, while offering funding that came with the caveat of rejecting Israeli politics.
Artists like Greig don't seem to understand that, when they call for a boycott of Israeli culture, they have effectively removed freedom of choice from potential spectators. Having a political opinion and expressing it is one thing, but as soon as you call for censorship and boycotts based on one point of view, you immediately discount other people's opinions and their freedom of expression.
And yet "freedom of expression" was a term bandied around a fair bit during last week's discussion. Middle-East commentator and panellist Antony Lerman said: "They [Tricycle Theatre] weren't preventing any Jewish or Israeli artists from freedom of expression."
While, in response to the backlash against Tricycle, Ms Gupta said: "Punishing a small theatre for standing up for its principles is a big step backwards for anyone concerned with challenging prejudice or promoting freedom of speech."
Well, in my book, offering freedom of expression to everyone except Israeli state funded arts is not called "promoting freedom of speech". It's called censorship.
That has no place in the arts world. The essence of art is to communicate and create a dialogue with its audience. How, then, can this group of artists hope to achieve this if they shut down plays, censor theatre companies and silence their fellow artists?
A theatre can choose where it gets its funding. If it wants to base that choice on political beliefs then so be it, but it cannot force the productions it commissions to do the same. A theatre should be an establishment for free-thinking and freedom of expression. They may not always like the result but that is the downside that comes with the privilege of freedom of expression.