The Hay Festival has ended its sponsorship deal with investment firm Baillie Gifford following a boycott by celebrities including Charlotte Church over its links to Israel.
As reported by the Telegraph, Church became the latest speaker to pull out of the event in protest at its relationship with Baillie Gifford, which invests in companies with links to Israel’s defence, technology and cybersecurity industries.
The singer told organisers in a public statement: “Your art festival is not more important than the lives of Palestinian children.”
In February, the former child star was criticised for leading a choir in a rendition of “from the river to the sea” during a pro-Palestinian charity concert in Caerphilly, South Wales.
She later insisted: “If you know the history of it all, [it is] not an antisemitic chant calling for the obliteration of Israel. It is calling for the peaceful co-existence of Israelis and Palestinians.”
Dawn Butler was one of the first to pull out of the Hay Festival, saying that Baillie Gifford was “involved directly or indirectly in technology and arms in Israel”.
Kumar, who was due to perform a stand-up gig, then announced: “Sad to say that I will be pulling out of Hay to support this campaign. Love the festival and the people that work in it, but this was the right decision for me.”
Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer has also withdrawn from the festival.
Julie Finch, the chief executive of Hay Festival Global, said: “In light of claims raised by campaigners and intense pressure on artists to withdraw, we have taken the decision to suspend our sponsorship from Baillie Gifford.
“Our first priority is to our audience and our artists. Above all else, we must preserve the freedom of our stages and spaces for open debate and discussion, where audiences can hear a range of perspectives.
Baillie Gifford sponsors several literary festivals. Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, pulled out of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, claiming that the investment firm was attaching itself to cultural events to “greenwash” its reputation.
A Baillie Gifford spokesman said: “It is regrettable our sponsorship with the festival cannot continue.”
The spokesperson added: “The suggestion that Baillie Gifford is a large investor in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is seriously misleading. It is based on conflating two different types of exposure.”
The company said that it invested approximately $19 billion in multinational technology companies such as Amazon, NVIDIA and Meta, which have commercial dealings with Israel “that are tiny in the context of all of their overall business. Practically every consumer and investor in the developed world is using the services of these companies.”
It said it was a “small” investor in three companies that have been identified as having activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – Airbnb, Booking.com, and Cemex – and is “committed to responsible analysing and engaging with the companies in which we invest.”
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