How pro-Palestine artists are being cancelled by UK cultural institutions 

Even before 7 October, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, a Lebanese cultural worker residing in the UK, had been used to awkward questioning from arts venues when she pitched work about Palestine.

“I’ve had very reductive questions from some venues when pitching Palestinian artists’ work, which hasn't happened when I've pitched other artists,” she said. 

“Before even giving me a chance to talk about the work, I’ve had questions about whether there was any balance by including an Israeli point of view, or if we foresaw any protests happening.”

Choucair-Vizoso once had a project pulled for featuring the word "Palestine" in its title.

Before October, these conversations tended to happen behind closed doors.  However, since Israel’s war on Gaza began, a slew of venues, including the Arnolfini arts centre, the Barbican, and Chickenshed theatre have publicly pulled events featuring Palestinian or pro-Palestinian artists.

In each case the venues issued statements citing security concerns or the "complexity" of the situation in Gaza.

For Choucair-Vizoso, the speed and the scale of the censorship has intensified since October.

“I haven’t seen this happening before at this scale,” she told Middle East Eye. “It’s never been this public, and now during a genocide.

"It's very hard, because my village in the south of Lebanon has been destroyed and I have to deal with this," she said.

“I think there are so many [events] we don't know about. Imagine all the work that didn't even get to the programming stage.”

Read more: How pro-Palestine artists are being cancelled by UK cultural institutions