PRO-PALESTINE activists in Scotland rejoiced yesterday after their Israeli boycott protests forced a state-funded theatre company out of an Edinburgh Fringe venue.

Incubator Theatre — partly funded by Israel’s Ministry of Culture — had been due to stage a four-week run of its film-noir musical The City at the Underbelly, regarded by many as the heart of the festival.

But organisers confirmed yesterday that Incubator’s booking had been axed in the wake of a raucous four-hour picket outside a review performance earlier this week, with protesters calling on the festival to join a worldwide cultural boycott in light of the Israeli military’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.