Overview

• Jewish Artists for Palestine interrupted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Royal Albert Hall performance for more than 10 minutes, shouting accusations including “You silenced Jayson Gillham” as banners reading “complicit in genocide” were displayed.
• The BBC paused its live Radio 3 broadcast and switched to pre-recorded music, audience members booed, security removed the demonstrators, and the concert restarted with a revised running order.
• The activist group said it targeted the event to oppose what it called Zionist funding, censorship and complicity in cultural institutions, naming both the BBC and the orchestra.
• The protest referenced the MSO’s 2024 cancellation of Gillham after remarks about journalists killed in Gaza, a decision the orchestra later called an error while denying unlawful discrimination.
• A federal court has ordered Gillham’s case against the MSO to proceed, with the trial scheduled to begin on December 1, 2025.