Support for Gaza and opposition to a genocide as personal political views

Guardian:

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has said it made “an error” in cancelling the performance of an acclaimed pianist who dedicated a piece to slain journalists in Gaza.

Jayson Gillham was scheduled to perform Mozart and Brahms at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday with the MSO, but was removed from the event after the orchestra said he made “a series of introductory remarks” that were “beyond the remit of his contract” at a previous performance.

…

“Over the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than one hundred Palestinian journalists,” Gillham told the crowd on Sunday, according to his management.

“A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets. The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.

“In addition to the role of journalists who bear witness, the word witness in Arabic is shaheed, which also means martyr.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, with the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists recording at least 113 killings of Palestinian journalists and media workers in the war in Gaza.