Israel Matzav

Alicia Keys defies BDS'ers, will come to Israel

Rhythm and Blues singer Alicia Keys has decided to defy the BDS'ers and show up for her concert in Israel on July 4.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center congratulates R&B singer Alicia Keyes for her courageous decision today to go ahead with her July 4th, Tel Aviv concert and refusing to bow to people like Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist Alice Walker and Pink Floyd member, Roger Waters. Walker's appeal to Keyes stated, "It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country ... ."  Waters also asked the singer not to perform, as her appearance would, “... give legitimacy to the Israeli government policies of illegal, apartheid, occupation of the homelands of the indigenous people of Palestine.”

"When Ms. Keyes sings in Israel on July 4th, she will be singing in the only free country in the entire Middle East, where women enjoy equal rights with men and Israeli Arabs have more rights than any of their brothers and sisters in the Arab world,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC Founder and Dean.

Equating Israel with apartheid South Africa is a sinister distortion of the truth,” Rabbi Hier said, adding, “Just look at what is happening in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt."

“Israel has said countless times that it is willing to sit down with the Palestinians without pre-conditions. But Israel cannot be expected to make peace with Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to Israel's destruction, just as African-Americans cannot make peace with the KKK," Hier concluded.

Last year Walker refused to authorize a new Hebrew translation of her acclaimed novel “The Color Purple.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish founded and funded (with communal money no less) 92nd Street Y hosted the anti-Semitic Alice Walker last week.

If the mission statement of the 92nd Street Y is "to serve the Jewish people" by promoting "individual and family development and participation in civic life within the context of Jewish values and American pluralism" how does Walker's anti-Israel and anti-American stance encourage this?

And in fulfilling its mission, the 92nd Street Y claims that "it will provide a setting in which Jews cultivate and strengthen their Jewish identity; [as well as] affirm its commitment to the State of Israel and to world Jewry." Then the "Y" really needs to delineate very clearly how inviting Walker to speak affirms this commitment?

In 2009 the 92nd Street Y "formed a partnership with Ramat HaSharon, 92Y's sister city in Israel." Also the 92nd Street Y Passport NYC residential camp brings teens from around the world to learn about the film, theater, culinary, and fashion businesses of New York City. Passport NYC joins Havaya, a joint Israel-American summer experience for teens from both countries which was begun in 2008.

How do the Y's leaders rationalize to these Israeli teens that Federation money is used to bring in speakers like Walker? How does Beverly Greenfield, Director of Public and Media Relations at the 92nd Street Y clarify to these Israeli teens that they should not take things personally as their country is bashed by "the color of anti-Semitism?" How does one justify promoting someone like Walker who believes that America "has done a disservice to Israel in not stopping its many war crimes and abuses of humanity?"

Is Walker aware of the health care that Israeli hospitals give to Palestinian children? In fact, the Palestinian newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadida recently explained that "[Israeli] Hospital director Weiss said: 'We relate to patients without regard to nationality and religion. We treat Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other nationalities without bias, and 30% of the patients are Palestinians.'" Where is the abuse of humanity, Ms. Walker?

How does the 92nd Street Y explain Walker's assertion during a Yom Kippur service that "Israeli soldiers raped Palestinian women" yet she could offer absolutely not a shred of evidence for this claim?

Walker has written that "Martin Luther King was a leader, a person of conviction" who would find it "difficult to comprehend, as I do, why Obama is incapable of standing up to Israel [.]" Citing Obama, who openly supports the terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood and has in the past "join[ed] forces with race hustler Al Sharpton, truly dishonors the memory of Dr. King who wrote that

The response of some of the so-called young militants does not represent the position of the vast majority of Negroes. There are some who are color-consumed and they see a kind of mystique in blackness or in being colored, and anything non-colored is condemned. We do not follow that course.... Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality.

Moreover, when approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Dr. King responded that "when people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."

If the 92nd Street Y were true to its mission, it would be inviting Alicia Keys to speak and not Alice Walker.

Labels: BDS, JCC Watch, Manhattan JCC

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:52 PM