Walk Outs After Pro-Palestine Message Played At Sydney Festival

Audience members have reportedly walked out of several performances at the Sydney Festival last week after a pre-recorded pro-Palestine message was played before a show.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies posted a warning to Facebook on Friday, claiming that a showing of Air Time, presented by  performance company Branch Nebula, contained “deeply offensive antisemitic messages.”

“Numerous attendees have reported being forced to walk out with their children as a masked “artist” recited the “river to the sea” chant that calls for the extermination of Jewish people.

“It is unacceptable for families to be lured to a child-friendly Sydney Festival event only to be berated by extremists.”

The phrase “from the river to the sea” carries significant political weight, with the Senate last year condemning the chant after it was quoted by former Labor senator Fatima Payne.

In a statement to Guardian Australia, Branch Nebula’s chair John Baylis said that a pre-recorded statement had been broadcast after the Welcome to Country prior to the performance. The message was recorded by a cast member whose parents are Palestinian.

“As we make art and perform for you today, Palestinian people are experiencing a genocide implemented by Israel as well as the sustained destruction of Palestinian culture, people and land,” the statement said.

“We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and we stand in solidarity with all oppressed people around the world … From the river to the sea, always was and always will be.”

Australians have taken to adding the phrase “always was, always will be” at the end of the Palestinian expression as a way to link the struggles for self determination that are shared by Indigenous peoples in both Australia and Palestine.

QR codes were also available to be scanned and linked audience members to the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, which is currently helping Palestinian migrants and refugees settle into Australia.

Branch Nebula stands by performers

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies wrote in their post that they were seeking refunds for those who left the show. A spokesperson for the Sydney Festival said that it had refunded 19 ticket holders.

Festival director Christopher Tooher and chair Kate Dundas contacted Branch Nebula after its opening night to ask that the company stop broadcasting the message.

“We accept audience members’ right to disagree, but we stand by our artists’ right to express their views,” Branch Nebula said in a prepared statement shared with Guardian Australia.

“By accommodating the complaints and demands of a few, we would exclude people in our community and our team. We prioritise the wellbeing of our cast and the wide circle of our community who are sympathetic to oppressed people everywhere.”

Sydney Festival issued a content warning to audience members for the remaining performances last week, saying that the performance would contain “sensitive and complex political issues, including the ongoing conflict in Gaza”, and reflected the personal views of the artists.

The festival claims that the performance company did not inform them of the message they intended to broadcast.