«Israeli» Apartheid Week: Vienna Hotel Intimidated into Cancelling Event

Local Editor

A hotel in Vienna had canceled a presentation by a human rights lawyer after intimidation by anti-Palestinian activists.

BDS Austria was due to host Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a lawyer and consultant for the human rights group Al-Haq, at Arcotel Kaisserwasser this Wednesday, on the topic "Apartheid and its applicability to ‘Israel'/Palestine."

But on Friday, the hotel management canceled its contract with BDS Austria, forcing the group to move the event.

The hotel had received "incessant calls, some by those identifying themselves as representatives of the Jewish community in Austria," BDS Austria said in a Facebook post.

"These people had issued threats and allegations of anti-Semitism against hotel staff, as well as announcing, without further detail, protest actions and boycott calls against the hotel," according to BDS Austria. "The hotel management felt threatened by this, to the extent of asking for police protection."

The hotel confirmed to Austrian media that it had received "unpleasant" calls, but later claimed it had canceled the lecture because it did not think it could accommodate a large public event.

IKG, a representative body of the Vienna Jewish community, told Vienna magazine that it was "absolute nonsense" that the hotel had received threatening calls.

However IKG head Raimund Fastenbauer said that anyone who felt intimidated ought to have called the police. IKG did confirm that the hotel had been told that "for us" the event and BDS "have an anti-Semitic background."

Karmi-Ayyoub's presentation will be held at an alternative location.

This will be the second time BDS Austria had been forced to relocate events it planned as part of "Israeli" Apartheid Week 2017.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team