Pro-Palestinian demonstrators repeatedly interrupted last Thursday's BBC Proms concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. A live broadcast of the concert, in which Gil Shaham played the Bruch First Violin Concerto, was twice taken off air by the BBC because of 'sustained audience disturbance'. The protests were greeted by boos, shouts and slow hand-claps from some angry concertgoers.

A BBC Proms spokeswoman said that about 30 protesters were removed from the Royal Albert Hall by security. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had earlier asked the BBC to cancel the concert and had called for people to boycott the performance. In a letter published in The Independent, 24 musicians, including violinists from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Chilingirian Quartet, had also called on the BBC to cancel the concert.

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