Legal warning issued to Adonis nightclub’s licence holders over ‘Zionist’ exclusion slur
EXCLUSIVE: Licence holders DL Food and Drink Limited tell Jewish News they are holding a review after controversy erupted last month
The licence holders of the premises that host a gay rave club in London are being threatened with legal action if they refuse to disassociate with club promoters who have claimed “Zionism has no place in queer spaces”.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to Eugene Wild and Stuart Glen, co-directors of DL Food and Drink Limited, the company that holds the licence for the premises, The Cause, that hosts queer nightclub Adonis at Silver Building in the Docklands.
As reported by Jewish News, the club has been condemned for including in its social bio description “Zionism has no place in queer spaces”. Following a public backlash, this was later changed to “no genocidal maniacs plz xx”.
The legal letter, seen by Jewish News, quotes CAA representative polling conducted in 2023, which found that 80% of British Jews consider themselves to be Zionist, and only 6% do not.
It then says: “Adonis is using aggressive rhetoric that is likely to exclude around 80% of its potential Jewish clientele from its venue. So far as we are aware, it has not sought to exclude the vast majority of the members of any other ethnic or religious group. We question how this approach marries up with Adonis’ claims to promote “inclusivity”. In this case, it appears to mean inclusive, except for the vast majority of British Jews.”
Whilst it notes that Adonis “sought to backtrack on its inflammatory online comments”, the harm “has already been done” and the social media posts “may well amount to breaches of the criminal law”, including “incitement to racial hatred”.
It questions what risk assessment DL Food and Drink Limited, as licence holder, and/or Adonis, as promoters, carried out to “safely and peacefully remove ‘Zionists’ from the queue or from inside your premises should they attend and asks specifically “what instructions have been given to door supervisors to achieve this objective?”
The letter urges the company to “seriously consider whether or
not to continue to permit Adonis to licence your club space given the hateful rhetoric put out by Adonis’ itself and/or external promoters on its behalf to date.”
CAA have warned the licence holders that they may approach the council to seek a review of the premise licence with a view to revoke it, if appropriate action is not taken.
With Adonis planning a further event at the Docklands premises on 7 September, CAA has asked the licence holders to respond by 27th August “at the latest”.
Adonis issued a statement on its Instagram account four days ago for purposes of “clarity on our values and position”, following a “smear campaign against us” saying that “Jewish people have always been both welcome and present”.
It says that it is “very proud to have Jewish residents DJs and Jewish guest DJs as members of the collective”, adding that accusations against Adonis are based on the “purposeful conflation of the criticism of Israel’s genocide with anti-semitism” and “the purposeful attempt to frame criticism of the Zionist ideology as the hatred of Jewish people.”
In a response on Wednesday morning to a request for comment, Stuart Glen from DL Food and Drink, told Jewish News: “We are holding an internal review of the situation, due to a number of circumstances, the Adonis event on 7th September will not take place at The Cause. We can not comment any further until our review is complete.
“We stand by our statement that we released on the 7th August, in relation to a completely separate issue, though addressing our stance on racism and hate.
“We at The Cause believe all humans are equal and should all be free to live without hate and fear.
“We do not tolerate any form of favouritism, hurtful language, discrimination, abuse, marginalisation or insulting behaviour on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion, background, skin colour, religious belief, sexuality, gender identity, socioeconomic class, disability or age.
“We do not accept sexism, racism, colourism, homophobia, biphobia, interphobia and transphobia or hostility, antisemitism, Islamophobia, fascism, age discrimination, ableism and other and/or intersectional forms of discrimination.
“The right of admission to our premises is and always will be reserved and anyone who displays any hate or phobias will be strictly banned.”
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