When Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
British Jewish band Oi Va Voi have won an important victory but will it be enough to stop the cancellations?
The famous Guardian writer was dad-dancing his feet off. Close by, jigging away, were the members of a hostage family who are slowly healing. A few ill-at-ease people were in suits. They mingled with fans and music journalists: this gig was unlike any other.
Because at Islington Assembly Rooms last week we were watching a band which, a few months earlier, was the victim of an antisemitic cancellation, one of the most outrageous and overt in modern British history, when this kind of racism is meant to be outlawed.
By the time Oi Va Voi, a British-Jewish klezmer-meets-pop outfit, performed their song Back to My Roots, an emotional tune for diaspora Jews who ‘feel unheard’, written in the aftermath of that cancellation, the whole space was dancing and cheering. For a brief moment, all the Jews in the room felt like we were enveloped in a musical hug and it felt joyous. It felt beautiful.
And then we opened the doors to Islington, home of Jeremy Corbyn, and braved the harsh elements again.
There is something journalists call the ‘non-denial denial’. This is when someone – an MP or a celebrity, usually – has been accused of doing something naughty and they put out a clever form of words that, at first glance, looks like a denial but fails to deny the actual thing they are being accused of.
One of my favourite classic examples of the genre is when the News of the World broke the story in 2004 that David Beckham had been having an affair with his assistant Rebecca Loos. His non-denial denial read: ‘During the past few months I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous stories about my private life. What appeared this morning is just one further example. The simple truth is that I am very happily married and have a wonderful wife and two very special kids.’
An actual denial would have been the far simpler: ‘This ludicrous assertion is not true and I have instructed my lawyers.’
Over the last few years, we have increasingly seen the non-apology apology - same concept - especially when it comes to antisemitism. The latest example came yesterday courtesy of Bristol club Strange Brew, which exactly six months earlier cancelled a performance by Oi Va Voi and its Israeli guest singer, Zahara.
The club had come under pressure from the Bristol Palestine Alliance to ban the performance. It knew that it couldn’t simply ban Jews. And that it wasn’t meant to ban Israelis either. Religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality are all protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act. (This doesn’t cover Russians who are subject to sanctions from the British state which takes priority).
Instead, the ban was ostensibly because Zohara, a left-wing Israeli with a Palestinian boyfriend, had an album cover featuring her naked at a watermelon farm. ‘We were of the view it could be interpreted as politically offensive, given the ongoing and worsening situation in Gaza and it had already been interpreted as such by the groups who contacted us,’ the club wrote following the cancellation in May. Their statement added that while the band had explained that the album cover was a comment on femininity and nature, ‘We concluded that, regardless of the intended meaning, the use of politically loaded symbolism in this way – by anyone of any background – is ambigious and could therefore come across as politically insensitive and/or offensive to the people of Palestine and by our audiences.’
An ‘ambiguous’ album cover used politically by malign forces does not, it appears, protect anyone from what the Equality Act says. Despite this, a second venue in Brighton also cancelled the band, and for a brief while, it seemed they were musical kryptonite. Dropped. Ironically, one place where they remained hugely popular was Turkey, where they continued to play to some of their biggest audiences.
All of this was at the same time when musical acts were signing mass petitions for Northern Irish band Kneecap – named after an IRA punishment beating – for alleged support of Hamas and Hezbollah. These acts claimed they were for free speech in music. Not one of them came out to support Oi Va Voi. Not one.
As Oi Va Voi said yesterday: ‘The intimidation of the activist groups who wanted Strange Brew to cancel our gig would never be tolerated against any other minority, either in the music industry or elsewhere. Anti-Jewish racism is racism, and racism is injustice, wherever it comes from.
‘What has been particularly disappointing is the lack of solidarity from fellow artists and the wider music industry. In the wake of what was seen by many as antisemitic rhetoric from certain acts, many artists were quick to sign letters highlighting the importance of free expression.
‘Yet the silence around cancellations of Oi Va Voi and other Jewish performers – British and Israeli – has been deafening. The readiness of venues, promoters and festivals to cave in to demands that exclude Jewish artists, and the lack of attention from the music press when this does happen, has contributed to an environment which has allowed anti-Jewish racism in Britain to persist largely unchallenged.’
When banned, Oi Va Voi were faced with a choice: do they accept this as the new normal or do they fight it? I think we all owe them a debt of gratitude for fighting, with the help of Jewish groups and the law firm Mishcon de Rea.
One can only imagine how tough this six-month fight has been for Oi Va Voi who described how, ‘This episode has had an immense personal and emotional impact on us. It has also led to financial loss, reputational damage and a barrage of hate, the like of which we had never experienced before.’
Their win is important not just for musicians but comics who have been cancelled from performances, and anyone who has been banned from making a booking simply for being Jewish. It shows how the law is still on our side, even if it sometimes feels like our politicians and the establishment is not.
Yesterday’s lawyerly non-apology apology from Strange Brew is worth reading in full. There is the rather delicious humiliation for a club that calls itself ‘inclusive’, admitting that ‘on reflection’ it had been specifically anti-Jewish. But how difficult this legal battle must have been is summed up in its failure to use the words either ‘sorry’ or ‘apologise’.
Call me picky if you want, but it is a mere six days since Strange Brew posted on its Instagram page that it would be hosting a ‘Bristol apartheid free zone’ event – complete with a watermelon - inviting people to ‘join us for an evening to celebrate the music of resistance.’
This is the statement: ‘On 21 May 2025, British Jewish band Oi Va Voi was scheduled to perform at our venue along with their guest performer, Zohara. We made a last-minute decision to cancel this performance following complaints about the band from activist groups, including about Zohara’s solo album artwork. We have reflected on this decision and have realised that we made a mistake in doing so. We recognise that Oi Va Voi was likely only subjected to this level of scrutiny, and Zohara’s album artwork interpreted negatively, because they are a Jewish band performing with an Israeli singer.
‘Oi Va Voi are musicians, not activists. They have no political affiliations and, as far as we are aware, have never made any political statements, be it in their music or otherwise.
‘We are an inclusive venue, and it was not in line with our values to exclude Oi Va Voi and Zohara from performing on the basis of conjecture by another group about their views.
‘Even if they did hold such views, we recognise that under the Equality Act performers cannot be excluded from our venue based on their nationality or ethnicity, or their philosophical or religious opinions and beliefs which are worthy of respect in a democratic society, even if some people are opposed to those views.
‘We also want to call out to all music venues that, regardless of the tragic events that have unfolded in the Middle East, we should not hold Jewish artists, wherever they may be from, to a higher standard by demanding they account for the actions of others or let the current conflict effectively exclude Jewish acts from our venues. Jewish people have greatly enriched the UK’s music and arts scenes, helping shape its sounds and stories. Losing this vital source of creativity would be a real loss for the country.
‘We have now implemented compulsory antisemitism training for all our senior management via the Antisemitism Policy Trust and have made a donation to the Community Security Trust, which works to protect British Jews from antisemitism. We have resolved the situation amicably with Oi Va Voi.’
Perhaps the (I’m guessing) lawyer-enforced antisemitism training will make all the difference. I hope it will stop British venues from cancelling Jewish acts – be they musicians, comedians or anyone else. My worry is more that they will just be more careful about who they book in the future, and that next time the cancellation will be silent.