Tweet
My dear friend, Deborah Fink, was one of the people who put this together Thursday in London. Their ad hoc group, Beethovians for Boycotting Israel, created new lyrics to Ludvig van Beethoven’s paean to the unity of mankind, Ode to Joy, and sang it several times during the performance of the Israel Philharmonic at the BBC Proms Concert:
Israel, end your occupation:
There’s no peace on stolen land.
We’ll sing out for liberation
’till you hear and understand.Ethnic cleansing and apartheid
Should belong to history.
Human rights cannot be silenced:
Palestine will soon be free.
BBC went so far as to take their live concert broadcast off the air for a time.
I’m not quite sure what I think yet, except that it was an astounding happening, which brings to mind the May, 1913 premiere in Paris of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. A major difference might be that after that opening’s scandal, people came to fully appreciate Stravinsky’s masterpiece. There were no further disruptions of consequence.
In the case of the Israel Philharmonic, they can look forward to a future of a rising crescendo of cancellations and a growing chorus of protests.
Here’s a cell phone video of the portion of the disruption during Max Bruch’s Concerto for Violin:
14 Comments
I’m of two minds about interrupting concerts vs using the engagement as a hook for consciousness-raising prior to and outside the engagement…perhaps even folding the Israel Phil into BDS activities, although that could yield diminishing returns as well. Not as clear-cut as, for example, the effective activism around the PR tour of the IDF soldier attempting to whitewash the Mavi Marmara slaughter.
What this calls to mind for me, more that the Rite of Spring riot, is the taboo against performing Wagner in Israel. When Zubin Mehta, conducting the Israel Philharmonic, attempted to break the taboo in 1981, a Holocaust survivor jumped onstage, showed his scars, and stopped the performance. Daniel Barenboim was denounced as a self-hating Jew when he conducted Wagner as part of an encore in Jerusalem in 2001.
Nowadays, Israelis and their supporters who uphold that taboo appear small-minded and anticultural to most of the world.
Things would be more clearcut in favor of disruption if there were a direct link between the Israel Philharmonic and the oppression — say, anti-Palestinian statements by the conductor or one or more members. I’m not aware of such.
I know the argument that as cultural ambassadors, the Israel Phil could be said to be playing a political role whether they intend to or not. As noted above, I think using their tour as a news hook for conscious-raising outside the concert hall could be valuable. But smart civil disobedience — and disrupting a concert counts — needs to be calibrated for message and impact. I’m not sure the PR cost-benefit nets out in a good direction for the protesters in this case.
I do, however, love the revised Ode to Joy lyrics.
I read and heard about this. Between this and the Turks withdrawing their ambassador from Israel, kicking the Israeli ambassador out, downgrading the diplomatic representation to second secretary level, and cutting ALL military ties. I’ve been in an uncommonly good mood lately.
What part of boycott do people not understand?
We did it to the South Africans and now we’re going to do it to the Israelis. There’s no difference in my book between the apartheid era Springboks being told they weren’t welcome in civilised countries and the same being done to Israeli orchestras and for the same reason. They’re beneficiaries of and respresentatives of openly savagely viciously racist regimes.
The next step is to give the people who invite them so much hell for doing it that they decide the hassle isn’t worth it.
The Israel Philharmonic = Apartheid era Springboks.
Fuck ‘em.
markfromireland
Adalah-NY: New Yorkers protest Israel Philharmonic for whitewashing apartheid, protests planned in other US cities
February 23, 2011
“February 22 – Seventy New Yorkers protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) performance at Carnegie Hall Tuesday evening, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest last Sunday evening in West Palm Beach, an upcoming Wednesday protest in Newark, and further protests in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as reported by the Israeli news website YNet.
Noelle Ghoussaini from Adalah-NY explained, “Tonight we sent a clear message to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israeli government’s “Brand Israel” campaign that their music cannot drown out Palestinians’ calls for justice.” The US protests respond to the call from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to boycott cultural institutions like the IPO that work to normalize Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and whitewash the oppression of Palestinians in Israel, the occupied territories, and in exile.”
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/02/16756/
It is the Albert Hall (been there, done that, and listened to many live prom concerts), and the sound has the famous Albert Hall echo.
That was no “small protest.” The sound conveys may people making the disturbance.
Amusingly, when the music started, the protestors respected the other patrons wish for quite during the performances (the sssshing is quite clear).
Very English. “You’ve made your point. Now let us enjoy the music!”
Bravo to the protesters! (But I hope that they will use better cameras to film their appearances next time!)
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra should be forced to stay home in apartheid Israel instead of traveling around the world trying to whitewash Israeli human rights abuses.
I slept on this overnight.
Up until earlier this year, I was against aspects of Global BDS of Israel. I was for boycotting products either made in the West Bank settlements, or made by companies with direct ties to supporting the expansion of those communities and their industrial concerns. But I was maintaining ties to Israeli academics, and using a textbook by an Israeli author, Roger Kamien, who lives in East Jerusalem, in an illegally constructed community. And I was not against buying Israeli products with no ties to the settlers.
What changed my mind, more than anything else, was watching the integrity of those involved in the boycott, very many of whom are Jewish, some of whom – as in the case in London Thursday – are close friends. Also, the settlement expansion is continuing at a very rapid pace, while Israeli forces are clamping down even more than usual on many Palestinian cultural activities.
There will be many protests, actions and flash mobs in support of Palestinian rights as we near the UN confrontation later this month over an enhanced presence for Palestine there.
As to the quality of the cell cam video, there were probably more moving images made that haven’t found their way onto the web yet.
“Protesters interrupted Passacaglia w/ Beethoven (more on Israel Philharmonic protest in London)”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/protesters-interrupted-passacaglia-w-beethoven-more-on-israel-philharmonic-protest-in-london.html
(Video of the protestors and also a stirring audio clip.)
“Now let us enjoy the music”
I would have to say they didn’t get the point. They stayed, they didn’t participate in the boycott. Needless to say, I fairly certain that most attendees knew that the concert would be protested, but came anyway.
It was the best the left can do these days as they sit on their hands for the war of the rich on the poor. Hope it made Teller’s friend feel good.
Screwing with other folks trying to enjoy music is so classy. I’m sure it created both converts to the hate Israel cause and fear of attending another concert featuring Jews living in Israel playing music in London.
At least they didn’t attack the orchestra. Palestinian artists are routinely attacked, rounded up, arrested and harassed.
And then there is this gem:
Heifetz’s ability to play was seriously diminished by this for the rest of his career.
Of course they came anyway. Concerts by the IPO are generally sold out. A high percentage of attendees are strong supporters of Israel, not necessarily serious concertgoers. It is one of the better orchestras in the world, and some of their recorded performances are among my most treasured. I’m not about to throw them into the dumpster.
I know a few of the players through correspondence since 2004. They and a few of their colleagues probably sympathize with these and other anti-IPO protests more than they would ever dare express openly. It would be career-ending.
“I know the argument that as cultural ambassadors, the Israel Phil could be said to be playing a political role whether they intend to or not.”
I don’t think that’s just an argument, I think it’s how the Israeli government sees it.
This orchestra doesn’t have any problems going to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they play at the Hill Auditorium, but I have heard they cannot get security to go and play in Detroit for some reason and so do not go there.
@ papau September 2nd, 2011 at 10:55 am
As classy as starving a population, bombing civilians, and deliberately targeting schoolchildren? Or as classy as acting as cultural ambassadors for apartheid?
As you’ve set yourself up as some sort of arbiter elegantium perhaps you’d care to address the “classiness” of those activities.
As to the rest of your comment – you’d better come up with something new (and “classier”). The tired old lie reflexively trotted out by people like you about how people like me who detest racism hate Israel and the equally tired old lie about how people like me who detest racism must necessarily therefore hate Jews are increasingly seen as what they are. Tired, old, and distinctly unclassy lies.
markfromireland