Prof. Roy Horovitz, senior lecturer of the Arts at Bar Ilan University, was invited to attend the CPH STAGE festival, scheduled to take place in May 2024 in Copenhagen. Horovitz accepted the invitation before October 7 and even paid participation fees. Two weeks ago, the Danish festival rescinded his invitation.
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The embassy staff requested a meeting with the organizers of the Danish festival but were refused, saying the decision was final. According to sources in the Foreign Ministry, the cancellation was attributed to "security reasons" for the Israeli delegation but turns out that the festival organizers faced threats and pressure from supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement (BDS).
In coordination with the Cultural Diplomacy Division at the Foreign Ministry, which has been dealing with increased cultural boycotts worldwide since the October 7 terror attack, the embassy in Copenhagen launched a well-organized campaign with Danish allies. Politicians from Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, as well as ministers and members of parliament, sharply criticized the decision, launching a blitz of interviews, even threatening to cut off public funding if the boycott against Israel was implemented.
The Jewish community responded to the embassy's appeal and also joined the criticism against submission to antisemitism. The climax occurred when the respected Berlingske newspaper published an editorial calling to invite Israeli creators to Denmark. The media storm caused the festival management to retract their "rash decision" and send a renewed invitation to Horovitz.
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Israeli embassy in Denmark thwarted the cultural boycott
(Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
Deputy Chief of Mission in Denmark, Jonathan Lebel, reported to Jerusalem that this was an important breakthrough achieved through intensive action with local partners who rallied to Israel's effort, and due to the great importance Denmark attributes to freedom of expression.
Prof. Horovitz, as a director and actor, has extensive experience on stages in Europe and the United States, and BDS encounters are not new to him. "I have encountered this in the past with minimal intensity in my performances in Ireland and South Africa, and last October in Kosovo, where two participants from Greece and Britain refused to sit with me on stage in a panel discussing theater in times of crisis and war. However, this farce is entirely new and demonstrates that when we respond to them with determination and do not give up, all the boycotters and their ilk fold."
Foreign Minister Israel Katz commented, "Since taking office, I have given great importance to cultural relations and our struggle against well-organized and well-funded attempts to harm Israel's international status and Israeli artists. The success in repelling the cultural boycott against us by the Israeli embassy team in Denmark, with their local partners, is proof that only with determination will we be able to defeat the antisemitic incitement against us."