“People were standing on each other’s
shoulders with flags giving me the middle finger,” Matisyahu tells The
Daily Beast in an interview. “It was intense. It was not peaceful. It
was like ‘Fuck you, Matisyahu.’ I’ve never had the experience of
anything like that, as a Jew or anything in my life.”
Matisyahu performed at the Rototom Sunsplash
festival after a public backlash prompted organizers to rescind their
initial insistence that he sign a statement in support of Palestinian
statehood as a prerequisite for his appearance.
Leading BDS'er writes post blasting ban on Matisyahu, post disappears down memory hole
Leading BDS'er Benjamin Norton wrote a post criticizing the ban placed (and subsequently removed) on Matisyahu by the Rototom festival in France last week. The post has disappeared down the memory hole.
Norton writes for the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, as well as a
slew of other places on the topic of how bad Israel is. While I don’t
agree with most of what Norton says, he certainly is prolific and an
upcoming opinion-leader in that sphere.
So when I saw Norton pen a column severely criticizing the ban
on American Jewish musician Matisyahu at the behest of a Spanish branch
of the BDS movement, I was, well, surprised. All the more so because
leading American BDS activists like Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal were
seeking to justify the ban because Matisyahu was too pro-Israel.
...
While I disagree with some of the characterizations — for example, in
reality BDS does boycott individuals, and it is not a peaceful movement
which seeks justice for all — the overall point was pretty much the
point that Zionist supporters of Matisyahu are making: Keep politics out
of music, and don’t single out Jews for extra political scrutiny.
#BDS_Fail Matisyahu gets an apology and an invitation
After a day that saw the Rototom festival condemned by its own government, American Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu has received an apology and a new invitation.
The Rototom Sunsplash reggae festival said it
rejects any form of discrimination and anti-Semitism, and said it was
sorry for canceling Matisyahu’s August 22 show.
...
The new invitation asks Matisyahu – the stage
name of the ex-ultra-Orthodox artist whose real name is Matthew Miller –
to perform in his originally planned slot on the festival’s Main Stage.
“We respect the Jewish community and sincerely
apologize for what happened,” the festival organizers said in a
statement, according to the Spanish news site El Mundo.
“Rototom publicly apologizes for canceling
Matisyahu’s concert and announces that he has been invited to perform on
Saturday, August 22 at the festival, as originally scheduled,” it says.
The statement blamed the local anti-Israel
group BDS País Valencià, which campaigned to cancel Matisyahu’s
invitation, for “pressures, threats and coercion” efforts that
threatened to “seriously disrupt the normal functioning of the festival”
and “prevented the management of the situation with clarity.”
In a hint that the festival may be facing
legal troubles for singling out the Jewish performer, the festival said
it “reaffirms its commitment” to each person’s freedom of belief as
recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish
Constitution.
It will be interesting to see whether the anti-Semites try to disrupt his performance.
Chanuka is coming up this week, and as long as I can keep finding Chanuka songs I'll post them. This is a new one: Matisyahu's new Chanuka song called Miracle. And I don't have to translate it for you....
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
