NEWLY APPOINTED Edinburgh International Festival director Fergus Linehan was lambasted yesterday for making “hypocritical” comments against Palestinian activists.

Mr Linehan spoke out last week against the “thuggish behaviour” of Palestinian rights activists who have previously shut down performances endorsed and funded by Israel at sister festival the Edinburgh Fringe.

He was supported by his predecessor Sir Jonathan Mills when he made these comments at a panel discussion called Walking the Tightrope, set up in response to last year’s disruptions of the fringe by Palestinian rights activists.

However, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign secretary Albie O’Neill rejected their “pompous and self-righteous advice.”

He said: “If Linehan and Mills are not interested in the well-documented war crimes, torture and human rights abuses carried out by Israel, I doubt they have much time to consider how Israel denies freedom of expression to Palestinians.”

Mr O’Neill noted that Israel has arrested without charge countless performers, banned performances and attacked Palestinian theatres with tanks.

These acts of aggression included closure of the Palestine Literary Festival in 2009, when participants including Michael Palin were driven out.

The 19th annual Palestinian Children’s Festival in east Jerusalem was also prohibited for being funded by the Palestinian Authority.

And in 2012, members of the Ramallah Orchestra were denied entry permits to perform in East Jerusalem.

Mr O’Neill said these attacks stood in stark contrast to “Israeli government support for artists and performers who are funded to attend events like the Edinburgh festivals, on condition they sign contracts which make clear they must act as ambassadors and not criticise Israel.”

Israel is aware that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign has huge global support, Mr O’Neill said, adding that, “like the pressure on the South African apartheid regime, it will ultimately prove irresistible.”

He said supporters of Israel “call for the right of freedom of expression, but their actions serve to defend a brutal apartheid regime that denies that same freedom and the right to life to the Palestinian people.”

Mr O’Neill will be taking part in another Walking the Tightrope panel discussion today, alongside Israeli cultural attache Dan Golan.