...as Israeli couple say they felt the audience wanted to kill them

Police have said  no crime took place at a Reginald D Hunter Edinburgh Fringe show after receiving complaints that his run-in with Israeli hecklers amounted to a ‘hate incident’.

The comic has been at the centre of an antisemitism storm after the couple were booed out of the comedian's show at Assembly George Square after challenging an anti-Israel joke.

Police Scotland have now said: ‘We were made aware of a hate incident, which reportedly took place at an event in Edinburgh on Sunday. All information gathered was fully reviewed and no crime was established.’

It comes as the couple – who reportedly left the venue to cries of ‘genocidal maniac’ and ‘you’re not welcome’ – gave an interview to the Daily Mail about their experience.

Using the pseudonym Talia, the woman said she felt the audience seemed ‘like they wanted to attack us and beat us… there was so much hate in their eyes – angry that we were daring to be alive’.

‘It was horrible. Worse than horrible. Not one person in that audience of more than 300 people – not one – had the balls to stand up and say, "Stop this". It was meant to be a lovely holiday and now I just feel miserable.’

The incident started when Hunter spoke about watching a TV documentary about an abusive marriage, and joking: ‘When I saw that, I thought, my God, it’s like being married to Israel’ – promoting Talia’s husband to shout :‘Not funny’.

Hunter reportedly responded : ‘I’ve been waiting for people like you all summer, where the fuck you been?’

He then added: ‘You can say it’s not funny to you, but if you say it to a room full of people who laughed, you look foolish.’

‘Talia' told the newspaper:  ‘It’s a comedy show – you’re normally allowed to heckle. Good comedians should be able to deal with a heckle without it being turned into absolute hatred.’

Hunter posted in response to the article: ‘And they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie  and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie.’

And he retweeted a post highlighting that the Daily Mail has been dubbed a ‘questionable source’ by monitoring service Media Bias/Fact Check.

The original  incident was witnessed by Daily Telegraph reviewer Dominic  Cavendish, who called it ‘the ugliest Fringe moment I’ve ever witnessed’.

Yesterday, Eastwood Park Theatre, on the outskirts of Glasgow, has pulled the comic’s planned appearance there on September 28 following the storm.

The venue is in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, home to the largest Jewish religious congregation in Scotland. The local council said the fit was pulled ‘due to controversial comments made during a recent performance’.

On Thursday Hunter broke his four-day silence over the incident, saying he ‘regretted’ what happened, but stopping short of an apology.

In a social media post, he called it an ‘unfortunate incident’, saying: ‘As a comedian I do push boundaries in creating humour, it's part of my job. This inevitably creates divided opinions but I am staunchly anti-war and anti-bully. I regret any stress caused to the audience and staff members.’

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said reports of what happened were ‘extremely concerning’.

A spokesperson added:  ‘Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but they also have a responsibility to their audience. Cracking jokes as Jews are hounded out of your show is a sickening low that cannot be disguised as comedy.

'We have seen this before in recent months, and venues must stand extremely firm against this kind of behaviour. Our lawyers are examining this incident.'

Assembly have said they were ‘aware of an audience member choosing to leave’ and said the front-of-house team ‘attended and supported’ them after they left.

Published: 17 Aug 2024