The shocking remarks heard in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra v Gillham case
One witness denied Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza
A Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) board member has denied that Palestinian civilians were deliberately killed in Gaza, in astonishing remarks heard in three weeks of court proceedings.
The highly anticipated legal stoush between the MSO and pianist Jayson Gillham played out in the Federal Court earlier this month, with pro-Israel board members and witnesses making sensational statements regarding Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Gillham is suing MSO for unfair dismissal after the orchestra cancelled his show due to pro-Palestinian comments he made before a performance in Melbourne on August 11, 2024. Before performing Witness, Gillham explained to the audience that the composer had dedicated the piece to journalists slain covering the conflict in Gaza.
“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. 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 shahid, which also means martyr.” (Court transcript, 18/05/2026, p12.32)
Throughout the trial, evidence revealed a clear pro-Israel bias within MSO and a perceived pressure to appease pro-Israel donors.
Denying the deliberate killing of civilians
Minutes of an MSO committee meeting held on 13 December 2023 – nine months before Gillham’s cancellation – were put to several witnesses, including then-MSO boss Sophie Galaise.
“Two of the MSO’s board members are Jewish and have expressed an interest in the company taking a pro-Israeli stance,” the minutes read. (22/05/26, p424.7)
Galaise – who was sacked following the Gillham dedication – confirmed during cross examination that the two members referred to were Farrel Meltzer and Edgar Myer. (22/05/2026, p424.16)
Meltzer’s evidence highlighted his own pro-Israel stance:
“You don’t accept that a single Palestinian civilian has been deliberately killed by forces controlled by the State of Israel?” Sheryn Omeri KC, Gillham’s barrister, asked.
“No, I don’t,” Meltzer replied. (02/06/2026, p1080.20)
In a later exchange, Meltzer confirmed that he named his property investment company “Wingate” after British military figure Major General Orde Wingate (02/06/2026, p1081.30) who he understood to be:
“… a great British general who assisted in the early years of Israel. He was posted in Palestine, as it was then known, and he was a great person, and someone who came from a very deeply religious Christian family, and of a very unusual strength and character and brilliance. And I liked the name and I named it after him.” (02/06/2026, p1082.17)
Colonel Wingate, known as the father of the IDF (though Meltzer claimed to not know this), commanded the Special Night Squads, a British-Jewish unit in Mandatory Palestine infamous for torture and killings of Palestinians. He has been described by prominent Israeli journalist Gideon Levy as “an oddball with sadistic tendencies” and a “villain” who “tortured Arabs”.
Denying the killing of journalists
Another key figure in the saga was Suzanne Dembo, who was then MSO’s Director of Philanthropy and External Affairs and is now the orchestra’s Chief Operating Officer. Dembo told the court she found Gillham’s comments “highly offensive” (25/05/2026, p539.10), and that she did not believe that journalists had been killed when questioned by Gillham’s barrister. (25/05/2026, p523.1)
“You disagreed at that time and when you were reading this message that the Israeli killing of Palestinian media was a war crime?” the barrister asked.
“Yes. I disagreed with that position,” Dembo replied.
“You believed that the Israeli killing of Palestinian media in the Gaza War was justified?”
“Your Honour, I don’t believe that the journalists were killed. I think there were lots of people that were killed, and I do not recall the specifics of who were journalists and who were not journalists. I just remember the killing of Palestinians and the killing of Israelis.”
“So your evidence is that, at the time, you didn’t believe that Israel had killed any Palestinian journalists, is that right?”
“I did not believe that Israel had committed war crimes, no, personally, your Honour.”
Fact-checking on journalists and civilians
According to the Committee to Project Journalists, Israel killed 207 Palestinian journalists during its assault on Gaza.
“Israel’s disregard for the lives of journalists – and for the international laws designed to protect them – is unparalleled,” the CPJ says.
“Israel has now killed more journalists than any other government since CPJ began collecting data in 1992, making this war the deadliest on record for journalists,” its alert read, referring to the Gaza war.
A UN Commission of Inquiry in September also found that Israel’s actions in Gaza – in which at least 73,000 Palestinians have been killed – constitute genocide. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, charged with crimes against humanity including the use of starvation as a weapon.
Criticising Israel ‘highly offensive’
Dembo sent a message to stakeholders on Tuesday 12 August, the day after the performance (25/05/2026, p509.1), stating:
“[Jayson Gillham’s] remarks were highly offensive.” (25/05/2026, p538.44)
Galaise also described the comments as “highly offensive” in correspondence following the event. Guy Ross, MSO’s Chief Commercial Officer, said the fact that the comments were critical of Israel was part of the reason they were seen as highly offensive (19/05/2026, p156.4):
“And you understood her to be saying that they were highly offensive because they had been critical of Israel, yes?” Gillham’s barrister asked.
“I understood them to be offensive within …
“Well, you said ‘highly offensive’, Mr Ross?
“Highly, thank you, highly offensive in the context on the MSO stage in front of those particular audience members, and that they were inappropriate and offensive, yes, in their general sense, and the remarks were critical of Israel.
“So when you say in their general sense, what do you mean by that? They were … ?”
“It was a – a personal, political – yes. It was critical of Israel, yes.”
Other text messages in evidence revealed frustration on the part of board members that Gillham was not “vetted” before he was allowed to perform, with board member Margaret Jackson sending Edgar Myer the following message:
“There was no vetting of the background on the musician, i.e. if you Google him, he is clearly pro-Palestine.” (29/05/2026, p941.20)
Now chair of the board, Myer confirmed that, going forward, he thought it was appropriate to vet musicians and do “due diligence”, though he denied that this concerned artists’ view on Palestine. (29/05/2026, p942.1)
More complaints about cancellation
Evidence also came to light as to the number of complaints received by the MSO about Gillham’s statement. Dembo, in her email to stakeholders, referred to numerous complaints about the performance, when in fact there had been only one written complaint about the dedication, and 10 complaints about the cancellation. (25/05/2026, p542.14)
Similarly, several board members said they were not actually aware of how many complaints had been received. (27/05/2026, p749.18, and 27/05/2026, p786.14)
In total, there were three complaints about Gillham’s comments and 487 complaints about the cancellation of his performance. (27/05/2026, p790.12 and 25/05/2026, p558.24)
Gillham’s lawyers pointed to the appeasement of pro-Israel donors as a potential reason for withholding the accurate number of complaints regarding Gillham’s statement, as evidenced by a text message Myer sent to fellow board member Martin Foley:
“Yet the Jewish/pro-Israel piece across our stakeholders is almost the very next thing we need to solve for the sequence.” (29/05/2026, p916.23)
When questioned about what he meant by the message, Myer said:
“What I meant by that was, if a statement had gone out in order to resolve the short-term situation around our reputation and the media situation, that might have an impact on various members of our stakeholder community that might be deleterious, and therefore that would need to be managed in the short to medium term thereafter.” (29/05/2026, p916.28)
MSO’s pro-Israel donors
The donors who were specifically identified were the Gandel and Besen Family foundations – two of the orchestra’s three ‘Major Philanthropic Stakeholders’. (25/05/2026, p546.31)
Both foundations contribute to causes in Australia and Israel, and were consulted in the drafting of the MSO position on Israel’s actions in Gaza, first presented to the board on 15 December 2023. (22/05/2026, pp415.44 and 422.17)
The Gandel Foundation consistently donates to major pro-Israel groups operating in Australia, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), The Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council and the Jewish National Fund.
Notable donations in 2025 include a grant to support ‘Duvdevan soldiers’ and their families – an infamous Israeli commando unit believed to be responsible for the killing of renowned Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 – and a three-year grant to ECAJ to support the work of Jillian Segal as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism.
The Besen Family Foundation’s most well-known contribution to Zionist causes has come in the facilitation of Israeli settlement of the Negev (or Naqab in pre-colonial Palestine) desert.
The desert, located in southern Israel, is home to an indigenous Arab Bedouin community, which has faced home demolitions and expulsion from their ancestral lands, in some cases to directly make way for Jewish settler communities.
Marc Besen, the family patriarch, said of the Zionist colonisation of the Naqab in 2019, “Ben-Gurion talked about his dream to settle the Negev and I made a promise to him … It is a great privilege to take part in his vision and dream.”
The MSO is not the first organisation to be taken to the Federal Court for actions related to Palestine. Journalist Antoinette Lattouf succeeded in her unfair dismissal case in the same court against the ABC last year.
As the proceedings came to an end on 5 June, Justice Hill urged the parties to reach a settlement given the reputational damage they both may face should his findings be made public. (05/06/2026, p1308)
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Underfunding the arts allows the rich to shape cultural production in their image.
Spot on Godfrey. If corporations and the wealthy were taxed properly there would be no need for faux philanthropy. You are correct, it is a means to exerting unseen influence.