Daphne Anson: Out Of Step With Anti-Israel Bigots: Irish Troupe Riverdance

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Out Of Step With Anti-Israel Bigots: Irish Troupe Riverdance

A recent article in the Hollywood Reporter quoted Israeli impresario Shuki Weiss as saying that despite the last-minute cancellations over the past couple of years of appearances by such high-profile performers as Elvis Costello, bookings in his country are improving:

“Israel is a small market in terms of selling records, but a huge market in terms of fans.

Israelis are very curious and open minded to new music. It's not by coincidence that the electronic and trance scenes developed [in Israel] years before they hit the United States and Europe.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bookings-rise-israels-concert-industry-182293

Defying calls from Boycott Derangement Syndromers, the famed Irish step dancing troupe Riverdance has confirmed that it will visit Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem in September.

In response, BDS advocates have stepped up (no pun intended) their demands that Riverdance do no such thing.

In an "open letter" to the troupe, their set designer Robert Ballagh says he's "personally disappointed" by their decision.

"Many years ago," Ballagh continues,

"I was honoured to meet Nelson Mandela when he was in Ireland. I took the opportunity to ask his opinion on the cultural and sporting boycott of South Africa. He replied by saying that the boycott was an essential weapon in the struggle against apartheid. His forceful words came back to me last year when I, along with many other Irish creative and performing artists, signed a cultural boycott pledge not to visit Israel (www.ipsc.ie/pledge). This was a positive response to the call by Palestinian film-makers, artists and cultural organisations for a cultural boycott of Israel. I believe that this non-violent cultural boycott will contribute to the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people.

Because I have signed up to support the cultural boycott I will not be travelling to Israel with Riverdance, and also I have decided to donate any royalties due to me for performances in Israel to the fund for the Irish boat which will be taking part in the international flotilla which is hoping to break the illegal and inhuman blockade of the citizens of Gaza."

And in a long and inevitable "open letter" similarly drawing that preposterous libellous analogy between Israel and apartheid era South Africa, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, through Raymond Deane, its so-called cultural boycott officer, says:

"Would Riverdance have toured South Africa during the dark years of Apartheid there? If not, then how can its creators and performers justify touring the rogue Israeli state that has devised its own form of Apartheid that in many respects is worse than that once practised in South Africa?....

Just as BDS - including the cultural boycott - played a part in isolating South Africa and helping to bring an end to Apartheid, similar tactics can help isolate the Apartheid Israeli state and compel it to end its illegal occupation and colonial settlement of Palestinian lands, and its refusal to negotiate a just peace without preconditions ...

Some say that, unlike Apartheid South Africa, Israel is a democracy and must be treated differently...Even if this were true, do the crimes of a democracy weigh less than those of a dictatorship? But it is not true: Israel calls itself "the state of the Jewish people", not that of its citizens, and discriminates against non-Jews; intent on continued expansion, it has never negotiated internationally recognised borders; it is in permanent violation of international law and international humanitarian law by virtue of its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian and Syrian territory and its cruel siege of the Gaza strip; and it holds thousands of Palestinian political prisoners (including over 200 children) subject, according to Amnesty International, “to torture and other ill- treatment.“ Does such a rogue state truly deserve the noble epithet "democracy"?

You may protest that culture is above politics and builds bridges between peoples, even opponents. But culture is not above being exploited for political ends by states that serially abuse human rights....'

The crusading anti-Israel British cleric Stephen Sizer, vicar of an Anglican church in Surrey, reproduces both letters, dated 26 April, in full on his blog: http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/2011/05/riverdance-must-boycott-israel.html

In a short statement posted on 29 April, the troupe notes:

"The upcoming inaugural visit by Riverdance to Israel follows an invitation by an independent concert promoter to perform in three cities next September and this tour will allow all Israeli citizens experience a show that has been seen live by over 22 million people across 35 countries for the past 16 years.

Riverdance supports the policy of the Irish Government and indeed the policy of every other EU state that cultural interaction is preferable to isolation."

No doubt there will be a sustained campaign ahead, of the kind described in that same Hollywood Reporter article, to cajole Riverdance to cancel their plans. Let's hope they, so to speak, dig their heels in and resist the pressure!

Meanwhile, here's more from the Emerald Isle ...

On the morning of 4 May, around 50 so-called human rights activists associated with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (reputedly one of the most fanatically hardline of all PSC groups) formed a "human wall" outside the Annual General Meeting at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dublin, of Irish multinational building supplies company CRH (Cement Roadstone Holdings, which has a 25% stake in Israel's Mashav group, a holding company for the Israeli cement firm Nesher), while inside the meeting Israel-bashing shareholders were vocal.

7 comments:

Anonymous8 May 2011 at 07:26
If they had any backbone Riverdance would fire the moron and any other antisemite that works for them.The problem is that no one answers these evil claim against Israel. Unfortunately from my understanding having a backbone is not something the English Jewish leadership happens to have, so I will not hold my breath.
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Daphne Anson8 May 2011 at 07:37
You're right about the English Jewish leadership, IP - a lily-livered don't-rock-the-boat bunch despite a few honorable exceptions.
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roger8 May 2011 at 08:30
That girl in the video screeching like a harpie is a clone of Rachel Corrie. These psychically marginalised misfits are drawn to the 'palestinian' cause like moths to a flame, using it to channel their seething rage against the world and life. They target the Israelis because the Jews represent everything they hate...success, confidence, self belief,love of life,progress. And like all good multicultural Marxists, they hate any form of power, whether it is benign or malign, and will side with the perceived underdog or victim, even if that so-called 'victim' is thoroughly malevolent and destructive.
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David Guy8 May 2011 at 16:03
Who can account for the Irish antipathy to Israel? BTW When I visited the Republic I never heard or saw a bad word about Israel although I identified myself as Israeli whenever asked. To be fair I have an Aussie accent.
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Daphne Anson8 May 2011 at 16:57
The number of female anti-Israel activists amazes and perplexes me!
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Anonymous11 August 2011 at 21:42
Fair play to those anti-Israeli activists. Being anti-Israeli is not anti-semitic no matter how often you repeat that lie.
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Daphne Anson11 August 2011 at 22:45
I hope to do a blogpost on that issue soon, Anon!
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Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

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Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

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There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

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The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
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