![\"\\u200bSimon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/u200bsimon-released-a-statement-online.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Jewish comedian has been banned by an Edinburgh Fringe venue after they attended a vigil for the victims of the October 7 attacks. <\/p>\n
Philip Simon has been denied access to the Banshee Labyrinth pub, due to alleged “rhetoric and symbology” linked to Israel.<\/p>\n
One reason cited by the venue for cancelling his show was due to attendance at a vigil for the Hamas terror attacks, which claimed the lives of over 1,200 people.<\/p>\n
Banshee Labyrinth told Simon: “Our management had a duty of care to our customers and staff members to review the political statements and opinions expressed by the performer. <\/p>\n
Instagram<\/p>\n
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Simon released a statement online<\/p>\n
“We feel it is inappropriate for us to provide a platform for performers whose views and actions align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations.”<\/p>\n
Simon said the only opinion he expressed on the conflict in Gaza was the push for peace and the hostages to be freed.<\/p>\n
Simon said: “I am still processing the concept that in 2025 I can be cancelled just for being Jewish. <\/p>\n
“In the meantime, I will still be at the Fringe for my one remaining children’s show and continue to investigate possible alternative venues for both of my cancelled shows.”<\/p>\n
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n The pub explained that it came to the conclusion to ban Simon after going through his social media pages.<\/p>\n Banshee Labyrinth told The Telegraph: “We routinely screen bands and performers for affiliations to, and statements that advocate for, discriminatory groups.<\/p>\n “We have hosted Philip in previous years and only thought we should have a look at his pages to see what was going on because of what happened with [a related row at] the neighbouring venue.<\/p>\n “If we hadn’t found anything of concern, he would obviously still be performing with us.”<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n | <\/p>\n Fellow comedian Rachel Creeger (right), pictured alongside Simon, has also been banned in the past<\/p>\n The alleged concerns came from Simon sharing pictures of the vigil, including messages on his X account reading: “Stand up to terror” and “bring home the hostages”.<\/p>\n The venue added its decision to cancel the show came after a row with a nearby site, Whistlebinkies, which had also cancelled shows by Simon with fellow comedian Rachel Creeger.<\/p>\n Bar staff claim they felt “unsafe” at the performer’s gigs, leading to the cancellations.<\/p>\n Creeger said: “Sadly, this is part of an ongoing problem faced by Jewish performers in this country. We are being cancelled and often silently boycotted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jewish comedian has been banned by an Edinburgh Fringe venue after they attended a vigil for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,837,12,712,16,1259,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-302053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uk-news","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114938311374899727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Fellow](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/fellow-comedian-rachel-creeger-right-pictured-alongside-simon-has-also-been-banned-in-the-past-u200b.jpeg\")