Pianist Jayson Gillham.
“Over the last 10 months,Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists. A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets,” I said.
“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.”
As an artist concerned with human rights,I believed this background would deepen the audience’s understanding of the piece. I did not expect what followed.
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The next day,the MSO terminated my contract and cancelled my scheduled Melbourne Town Hall performance. On November 7,it filed its written defence to my workplace discrimination claim in the Federal Court.
Its position is extraordinary. It wants to make artists like me disappear entirely from workplace law.
According to the MSO’s defence,I exist in a peculiar legal limbo. I am not an employee;I am not a contractor. In fact,it claims I have no connection to the MSO whatsoever. Yet paradoxically,it maintains it can dictate what I can and cannot say,cancel my performances at will,and deny me any avenue for legal recourse.