When I saw this video advertised I thought it would be about the disruption of the Israel Philharmonic at Royal Prince Albert Hall last Thursday night. It's not. This video was actually posted to YouTube the day before the Philharmonic incident, but it could equally have been posted the day after.
When Syrians perform at Edinburgh, England, no one protests about Assad's murder of Syrians and Palestinian refugees, or the persecution of non-Muslims in Syria. But when the famous Jerusalem Quartet performs at Edinburgh, and the audience just wants to listen to some nice Mozart, they are disrupted by a few protestors shouting "Jerusalem is occupied" (guess they don't know history, even if you don't recognize the annexation of East Jerusalem, everyone agrees West Jerusalem is part of Israel), or "Apartheid" (which is a shame to South African Apartheid, since you can't compare the two, and reflects a double standard when not applied to Arab countries, where this is real Apartheid, and not Israel).
That leads us to question - how much do these "human rights activists" care about Arab rights over an orchestra's performance? Or do they care more about demonizing and delegimizing the very existence of a Jewish state and its right to self-defense?
Did the protestors even know that two of the members of the Jerusalem Quartet are also regular performers with Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings Arab and Israeli musicians together?
Finally: British politician condemns disruption of Israel Philharmonic
It took several days, but a British politician has finally condemned the disruption of the Israel Philharmonic at London's Royal Prince Albert Hall last week.
Brian Coleman, Barnet and Camden’s London Assembly member has condemned the disruption of last night’s Proms performance by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign describing their actions as “like that of 1930s black shirts”.
Commenting after the PSC interrupted conductor Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with chants, shouting and singing, Mr Coleman said:
“This is profoundly ignorant behaviour from a group of people behaving in the same way as 1930s black shirts.
“Anyone who knows anything about Israeli cultural life knows that classical music plays an important part in helping to bridge divides. But these people wouldn’t care about that.
“All they are interested in is promoting their narrow-minded, warped opinions and shouting down anyone else.
“I hope Mr Mehta, the orchestra and Israel take heart from the fact that the vast majority of people are the Royal Albert Hall last night condemned the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s stupidity.”
What's that sound in the background? Unfortunately, it's crickets chirping at 10 Downing Street....
I've seen some gloating from pro-'Palestinian' groups around the web over the fact that the BBC took the Israel Philharmonic off the air during their 'protest' on Thursday night, but the pro-'Palestinians' might be wise to lower their profile. Those who were present at the concert said that the entire audience turned pro-Israel as a result. Wouldn't it be something if the entire BBC audience did the same?
The protesters' despicable antics could yet prove counterproductive. There were six interruptions - but seven standing ovations (hat tip: Richard Millett).
Indeed, Britain's Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, who attended the concert, tweeted: "Demonstrators seem to have turned entire audience pro Israel".
The PSC cultural terrorists included all the usual suspects who picket Ahava in Monmouth Street every fortnight. Deborah Fink was there in disguise, presumably because she thought she is so infamous that security would spot her - she had her hair swept back and dyed grey. Bruce Levy - who has been banned by the police from Monmouth Street where Ahava is located, for his loutish behaviour - also attempted to disguise himself, by growing a beard. (Finkler Jew Levy famously said that Gilad Shalit should be dug up and then reburied). The PSC Jew haters tried to stop me doing an interview with the BBC outside the Hall after the concert, by yelling and screaming. If you can't win an argument try censorship - that's the way these Stalinists operate.
The applause at the end of the Bruch Violin Concerto - before the interval - was tumultuous and soloist Gil Shaham even played an encore. I was told that the applause at the end of the concert was every bit as enthusiastic.
Whata shame that the audience's enthusiasm for the IPO could not include the waving of Israeli flags - which had been banned by the Hall, along with all leaflets and other flags. (I waved a flag at the cultural bigots of the PSC but was asked to leave).
And I thought it was all the Muslims in London who were demonstrating for the 'Palestinians.' Silly me. I should have known better.
There's a video from the BBC in Portuguese in which Hoffman appears here.
Earlier, I posted a video of Thursday night's disruption at London's Prince Albert Hall.
In response, commenter Theo posted a link to the video below. Watch the last 30 seconds or so (especially) to see how conductor Zubin Mehta handled it. The video cut off just as the BDS'ers were played down.
Let's go to the videotape. More below the fold.
For the record, London police removed about 30 people from the hall, but incredibly did not arrest anyone, according to the account that was posted with this video. That was a bad mistake because they're just inviting the next such incident.
Overnight music video (with video from Prince Albert Hall)
I'm going to do something a bit unusual tonight. First, I found video from the incident in London's Prince Albert Hall, so let's get that up first.
Let's go to the videotape.
Now, the other thing I wanted to do for you was to post the exact program that was played at Prince Albert Hall this evening. Unfortunately, I could not do that. The program was Bruch Violin Concerto Number 1 featuring (American Israeli) Gil Shaham as the soloist. I found videos of the piece and videos of Shaham but not videos of Shaham playing that particular piece.
So here's the first movement of Bruch's Violin Concerto # 1 played by Pinhas Zuckerman for the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta.
Let's go to the videotape.
And here's Gil Shaham with the Israel Philharmonic (this time conducted by Daniel Etinger) playing the first movement of Haydn's violin concerto in C Major.
Israel Radio reports that the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra had to stop its concert twice on Thursday evening due to disruptions by 'Palestinian'-supporting scum (the word used by a friend in London in an email to describe them). The BBC took the concert off the air. Police removed the disrupting persons from the concert hall.
A BBC spokeswoman confirmed the live broadcast had been taken off air on Radio 3 "as a result of sustained audience disruption".
The BBC Proms team earlier posted on Twitter, the microblogging site: ''We're sorry that the concert was taken off air following hall disturbance.
"Glad both pieces were heard by the audience in the RAH.''
Some audience members tweeted that the protesters were shouted at to stop.
...
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We regret that as a result of sustained audience disruption within the concert hall which affected the ability to hear the music, tonight’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Prom was taken off air.
"The invitation to the Orchestra was a purely musical one, offering the opportunity to hear this fine Orchestra in conductor Zubin Metha’s 75th year, so we are disappointed that BBC Radio 3 audiences were not able to enjoy the full performance. BBC Radio 3 broadcast recordings of the same music, however the performance continued in the hall.
"We will broadcast part of the concert next Wednesday 7 September at 2.30pm."
The Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta (pictured) will play in Prince Albert Hall in London on Thursday night, despite efforts by terror supporters to prevent the concert from taking place.
Since July, activists have been pressuring organizers to cancel the concert. They told organizers that the IPO is, according to one activist, “a pillar of the Israeli state system and of its cultural propaganda campaign” and “complicit in whitewashing Israel’s persistent violations of international law and human rights.”
Leading the campaign is London School of Economics Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, chairman of British Committee for Universities for Palestine, a group leading the call for a blanket boycott of Israel. He wrote to Roger Wright, director of the Proms, on July 31 telling him to cancel the concert.
“By inviting the IPO, a pillar of the Israeli state system and of its cultural propaganda campaign, you provide the Israeli government, perpetrator of the Cast Lead invasion of Gaza and of so many other violations of international law and of human rights, with the support that they crave. Cancel the concert!” he said.
“For years now the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been promoting ‘Brand Israel,’ a deliberate PR campaign to divert people’s gaze from what they are doing to Palestinians.
The idea is to craft a new image by focusing on Israel’s cultural and scientific achievements,” the LSE Emeritus Professor of Operational Research added.
It followed a campaign led by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for Academic-Cultural Boycott of Israel) who wrote to the Proms’ director on July 18 calling on him to withdraw the invitation to the IPO. In the letter they stated that “its services to the Israeli army dates back to the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba in 1948 and the occupations of 1967, and continuing up to the present day.”
The calls have been firmly rejected by the Proms organizers.
There's more - read the whole thing. Unfortunately, it sounds like there may be as many demonstrators - on both sides - outside the hall as inside. Hopefully, at least they won't play Wagner tonight.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
