A protest will be held outside an Edinburgh Festival Fringe event which will showcase the culture of Israel this week.
Two years after protests led to the closure of an Israeli show at the Fringe, a one day event to "foster cultural ties between Israeli society and other countries" is to be staged in the city.
The International Shalom Festival is to take place at Edinburgh's Central Hall on August 17, but will draw a protest from groups protesting against Israel's actions in Palestine.
Edinburgh Action for Palestine said it would be a 'peaceful silent, banner protest'.
Last night the festival's organiser, Nigel Goodrich, said that it does not receive a "single shekel of funding from Israel".
He added: "In protesting against it, the Palestinian activists' masks have slipped to reveal the true depth of their intolerance.
"Demonising Jewish, Arab and Christian performers who are committed to building bridges and promoting peace is the most shameful and brutal denial of freedom."
The Shalom Festival will include "Jews, Arabs, Christians, a Samaritan, Druze and non-aligned people, celebrating the diverse culture, music, art, dance and food of Israel and aiming to build cultural bridges and develop international friendships."
However Palestine solidarity groups have called for peaceful protest against the event which they say is organised by "defenders of Israel’s illegal military occupation."
The protest will begin outside the festival venue, Central Hall in Tollcross, led by Edinburgh Action for Palestine.
In 2014, due to protests, Incubator Theatre, partially funding by the Israeli government, was forced to shut down its show at the Fringe.
Edinburgh Action for Palestine said it "supports the Palestinian civil society call for a cultural boycott of Israeli institutions, which is backed by over 100 UK artists, including Liz Lochhead, Alexei Sayle, Mike Leigh, Miriam Margolyes and Michael Rosen, and which is directed exclusively at Israeli institutions and at non-Israeli bodies that serve political propaganda purposes in favour of the Israeli government policy."
Evelyn McGregor, of Edinburgh Action for Palestine, said: “Calling this festival ‘Shalom’, the Hebrew word for Peace, is a travesty because it is a blatant celebration of a state which consistently violates the human rights of Palestinians and breaches international law.
"Such breaches include the cruel blockade of Gaza, repeated military aggression against civilian populations, illegal Israeli settlements on occupied West Bank territory, and the impunity with which Israeli soldiers and armed settlers can kill and injure Palestinians, including children.
"This festival is using the arts as a tool for normalising human rights violations”.
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi from Artists for Palestine UK, who delivered a letter of protest to the Fringe organisers, added: “There is no mention by name of the Palestinians who make up one fifth of Israel’s population as well as the entire population of the occupied territories, besieged Gaza and numerous refugee camps across the Middle East, nor of those in exile around the world.
"Israel’s “cultural bridges” bypass the people it has dispossessed."
A spokeswoman for the Fringe Society said it is an open access festival, and "these principles guarantee artists the freedom to present their work to the public without the intervention of a curator or the need for official approval."
She added: "To be clear, our commitment to freedom of expression means that we support the right of all participants of the Fringe and members of the public to hold and express differing political views, but we also believe in an artist’s right to freedom of expression, and that the curtailment of this freedom is contrary to the fundamental ethos of the festival."
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