John Cleese recently canceled his upcoming Israel performances despite the sold-out crowds that awaited him. If it had come to pass, this would not have been his first tour of Israel. Cleese’s most recent visit was just prior to Covid and I, along with hundreds of others, thoroughly enjoyed the performance. We felt like family because no ethnic group was safe from his ire - not even the throngs of Jews in attendance. He took shots at everyone because, in his own words, “that’s what we do with those we love - josh them.”
The question is: why the sudden change?
According to Cleese’s X account, he canceled the shows due to a safety issue. Allegedly, the organization Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), that works nonstop to undermine Israel, threatened the longtime comedian if he carried out the performances. This is BDS’s MO: intimidate those who would perform or invest in the State of Israel in order to halt the activities. With regard to safety, Cleese wrote, “At 86, that is obviously all important.”
However, the BDS claim raises serious questions. In reality, Cleese had been on a tirade the past few months, consistently posting fake news and borderline antisemitic conspiracy theories - from a video mistranslating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying Israel controls the US government to a meme attributing to Tzipi Hotovley, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, a fabricated quote claiming she’d sleep fine if a million Palestinian children were dead. It has seemed unending.
I spent the last few weeks commenting on Cleese’s posts in the hopes of waking him up. I wrote things such as, “Maybe you should call for the arrest of one Hamas member so at least you show an ounce of balanced perspective.” “When are you going to be funny again?” I even posted a 30-year-old sketch of his, detailing how to be a fundamentalist to show him what he’s become. But all to no avail.
Suddenly, something did change. If you were to visit Cleese’s X feed now, many of the posts are gone. After months of amplifying some of the most unsubstantiated claims from the most antisemitic accounts, it’s as if it never happened. But in many ways, the damage has already been done.
Why would he have done such a thing?
One can only speculate, but what’s clear is that Cleese rode the wave of spreading false and inflammatory content about Israel until it was no longer convenient for him. There is no evidence of a change of heart because, at the time of writing, he has still offered no explanation or apology.
It’s quite plausible that Cleese used existing BDS pressure as a convenient excuse for canceling the tour. The only problem is the claim is at odds with his recent social media behavior. Cleese’s feed before the purge actually made him the poster child for the movement. The post deletions may have been an attempt to align with the narrative of the BDS threat.
But none of these rationales makes the behavior any less offensive.
There is a message John Cleese needs to hear. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we Jews, the ones who still celebrate the exodus 3300 years later - we don’t forget. We are the religion of institutionalized memory. Deleting the months of anti-Israel social media content doesn’t erase the record - or the harm.
Even so, we believe in Teshuvah - repentance. If you’d like to start a new life and forget the past, there’s only one way to do it: Apologize for your actions. Throw yourself at the mercy of the people. Then we’ll see if you can reschedule your shows.
It’s alarming how even the most fearless of comedic minds can be captured by global panic surrounding Israel. But at a time when Jews are coming under attack throughout Europe - especially in Britain - the last thing we need is more public figures we trusted and loved turning on the Jewish community.
What we need is a return to an era of dialogue and critical thinking, moving beyond the polarizing effects of social media bubbles. And the first step toward rehabilitation is recognizing there’s a problem.
The writer is a rabbi, a wedding officiant, and a mohel who performs britot (ritual circumcisions) and conversions in Israel and worldwide. Based in Efrat, Israel, he is the founder of Magen HaBrit, an organization protecting the practice of brit milah and the children who undergo it.