“A PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed,” he said.
“I did not utter these phrases, and they most certainly are not approved by me, nor do they reflect my feelings. The fact that they were printed as direct quotes from me is unacceptable and untenable. For this reason, I have decided I cannot participate in the Tel Aviv performance.”
“Alon Yurick, the show’s Israeli producer, clarified that the original press release contained an incorrect quote resulting from a misunderstanding and apologised for the error,” he went on, before directly disavowing the quotation regarding “solidarity”.
“My appearances would also not condone nor mean that I am in supposed ‘solidarity’ with any particular political cause, nor with the killing of innocents, nor with any acts of terrorism, nor any other kind of barbarity,” he said.
“Only playwrights, novelists and screenwriters can put words in my mouth, and even then, only in the service of storytelling, and no one else should think they can do that without my consent and without the resultant consequences.”