By: Laura Snapes, The Guardian
Public figures including Stephen Fry, Sharon Osbourne, Marina Abramovićand pop mogul Scooter Braun have signed a letter speaking out against a proposed boycott of this year’s Eurovision song contest, which is to be held in Tel Aviv in May.
Their letter states that Eurovision’s “spirit of togetherness” across the continent is “under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel, subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division”.
It continues: “We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise, exchange, and mutual recognition. While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the best path to peace, we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer.”
Non-profit organisation Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) are behind the letter, which has more than 100 signatories. Also among them are Gene Simmons of the band Kiss, comedian Al Murray, Countdown co-presenter Rachel Riley and Spanish singer/songwriter Conchita, AKA Maria Concepción Mendívil.
Ari Ingel, director of CCFP, said: “The members of the entertainment industry who have signed this statement, along with the thousands of individuals who have endorsed its message, all believe in building bridges through music and the arts as a means to achieving greater understanding and peace in the region.”
Their letter comes in response to widespread calls for participating artists and broadcast partners to boycott the contest. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has claimed that Israel is “shamelessly using Eurovision as part of its official Brand Israel strategy, which presents ‘Israel’s prettier face’ to whitewash and distract attention from its war crimes against Palestinians.”
In January 2019, British figures including Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Mike Leigh, Julie Christie, Maxine Peake, Caryl Churchill and the band Wolf Alice signed a letter calling on the BBC to cancel coverage of the 2019 song contest.
The signatories criticised Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories. “Eurovision may be light entertainment, but it is not exempt from human rights considerations – and we cannot ignore Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights.”
In response, the BBC underlined its commitment to airing the event: “The Eurovision song contest is not a political event and does not endorse any political message or campaign. The competition has always supported the values of friendship, inclusion, tolerance and diversity and we do not believe it would be appropriate to use the BBC’s participation for political reasons. Because of this we will be taking part in this year’s event. The host country is determined by the rules of the competition, not the BBC.”
Roger Waters has urged Madonna to pull her planned performance at the event. She has not responded. In September 2018, he also wrote an open letter to the 41 finalists asking them to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the Palestinian people. Thus far, no competing nation has rescinded their participation owing to the competition’s location. In February, Ukraine pulled out after its competitor selection process became entangled in political tensions with Russia.
The contest is being held in Israel following the country’s win in 2018, for pop singer Netta Barzilai’s track Toy. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had wanted the contest to be staged in Jerusalem, but the nationality of the city is disputed, with Palestinians claiming an Israeli-occupied area as a potential future capital city. Instead, Tel Aviv will host the contest, which is scheduled for 18 May. Michael Rice, 21, will represent the UK.
• This article was amended on 30 April 2019. An earlier version said the former Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst had signed the letter. It is in fact the Spanish singer/songwriter Conchita, AKA Maria Concepción Mendívil. This has been corrected.
Rastifarianism is not a religion but a spiritual culture, explains Anthony
Jamaican reggae sensation Anthony B took to the stage in Israel with performers around the world to celebrate the late reggae legend Bob Marley’s 74th birthday over the weekend with a “One Love” concert.
In an exclusive interview with i24NEWS, he describes the impact of visiting the holy places he learned about growing up.
“And as we say, experience is the greatest teacher, so what you hear about Israel and what you read about Israel — when you come here it’s a different vibration.”
During the concert at the ancient amphitheatre in Caesarea, a video message was shown onstage from Palestinian singer Rami Aman and others in the Gaza Strip wishing happy birthday to Bob Marley and thanking him for his message of peace and love spread through his music.
“We are here in Gaza sending our love and greeting for him and for all,”
“I’m here with a Jewish lady from America, I’m from Jamaica, we’re in Israel, I’m wearing a Palestinian headwrap; so you see it’s all about peace and love, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Anthony B said during his interview with i24NEWS Culture Correspondent Emily Frances.
Rastifarianism is not a religion but a spiritual culture, explains Anthony, that believes they are one of the lost tribes of Israel, descending from the first emperor of Ethiopia Menelek,who is thought to be the son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba
“The dreadlocks are a holy sacrament taken before Christ never to trim or shave, instead letting the locks grow until the days are manifested,” Anthony explains of the rastafarian custom of growing out their hair into dreads.
He also explains the Rastafarian practice of smoking “ganga” as founded on the belief that the only thing to grow at Solomon’s gravesite was the marijuana plant.
“Everyone who thinks he’s a wise man wants to smoke marijuana because he wants to be as wise as Solomon,” he says in jive.
“Jerusalem, Bethlehem — these places didn’t even sound like a place on earth,” he says in awe of the biblical places he learned about as a child.
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Israeli, Palestinian and other Middle Eastern musicians brought a message of peace this week to an America torn by caustic political discourse.
For nearly 20 years, youths from sworn enemy countries have performed classical music together at the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the brainchild of conductor Daniel Barenboim and late Palestinian American scholar Edward Said.
“We are looking for something almost impossible, but still we try,” said Kian Soltani, 26, a rising Austrian Iranian cellist who gave a fiery performance Wednesday at Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The orchestra opened its program with Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem “Don Quixote,” inspired by the early 17th century novel about the romantic knight-errant who combats imaginary tyrants.
In many ways, the piece is a metaphor for the orchestra itself.
“If somebody would tell us that peace in the Middle East was impossible, we wouldn’t stop fighting. We would still continue like this because we believe it’s possible,” Soltani, who played the title role, told AFP.
Michael Barenboim (L), the orchestra’s concertmaster, performs during a rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on November 7, 2018. (Olivia Hampton/AFP)
“It’s the same for Don Quixote. He thinks he’s a knight, he thinks his dream is possible. Everyone is telling him it’s not, but he doesn’t care.”
Quixotic as it may be, the project is making its first coast-to-coast American tour just as the United States reels from a series of deadly hate crimes.
Politics and war have thwarted a goal to perform in all the members’ home countries. There was a concert in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in 2005, and none in Israel.
“It’s a pity,” violist Miriam Manasherov, 37, told AFP.
“The day that will come that we can all play in Israel or in the other Arab countries that I can’t go to, that will be a huge success.”
She plays the rotund Sancho Panza, who supports his master gone mad as he pursues his ideals on love, justice and peace in an ugly world.
The pair also performed with their sections for Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which evolves from dark to light in four movements linked by a recurring “Fate” theme.
In “Don Quixote,” the hero ultimately gives up on his dream, returns home and dies among his loved ones. The orchestra is hoping to march toward a different future.
Changing attitudes
While he acknowledges that the orchestra — which borrows its name from Goethe’s German lyrical poems inspired by Persian poet Hafez — has not had much impact on the ground in the Middle East, Barenboim says the project has left a “terrific” stamp musically.
Daniel Barenboim (CC-BY-Alkan, Wikimedia Commons)
“It has changed the attitude of every person who has been through it. That’s about 1,000 people,” said Argentine-born Barenboim, who also claims Israeli, Palestinian and Spanish citizenship.
“Nobody who comes into this with whatever preconceptions he has, goes away thinking the same way.”
The orchestra’s first coast-to-coast US tour is a homecoming of sorts for Barenboim, 75, who stepped down as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s director in 2006 after more than four decades that also saw him serve as conductor and pianist there.
The Midwestern city was the tour’s first stop, on Monday, ahead of performances in Washington, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Berkeley, California and Los Angeles.
During their last US visit, in 2013, the orchestra performed the Beethoven symphony cycle at Carnegie Hall, as well as in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.
“It is a conflict between two people who are deeply convinced they have a right to the same little piece of land, preferably without the other,” Barenboim said about the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performs during a rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on November 7, 2018. (Olivia Hampton/AFP)
“You cannot solve this militarily, unless you kill everybody, and you cannot solve it politically.
“You can only solve it by coming to the point where both sides understand that their destinies are inextricably linked and therefore accept the existence of the other.”
Deceptively simple as it may seem, that is the thrust behind the orchestra and the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, which trains gifted musicians mainly from the Middle East and North Africa for a professional career.
To drive the point home, the concert’s closing encore was the overture of Richard Wagner’s “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg,” a work widely used in Nazi propaganda and subverted once more by the orchestra’s unique make-up, to raucous applause and a standing ovation.
CELEBRITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST ISRAEL EUROVISION BOYCOTT
With the much anticipated Eurovision Song Contest just around the corner, more than 100 artists and leading names in the entertainment industry unite in the spirit of peace and togetherness to show their support for the show in Israel.
London, UK (30, 2019) – The entertainment industry non-profit organisation, Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), has released a statement in support of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Tel Aviv, Israel this May.
With over 100 signatories, the statement includes stars such as Sharon Osbourne, Rachel Riley, and Stephen Fry, as well as Gene Simmons and Tracy Ann Oberman, amongst the biggest names across the global entertainment and music industry.
The full statement and list of signatories can be found below. Additionally, over 15,000 people from around the world have signed a similar statement on Change.org, asserting that a cultural boycott of Eurovision does not work to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians. [LINK]
This news comes as the BBC recently released its own statement in support of the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel this year, noting that the international song contest, as always, embodies the “values of friendship, inclusion, tolerance, and diversity.”
Ari Ingel, Director of CCFP, said: “This year, approximately 200 million people will watch, visit and take part in the Eurovision song contest, celebrating music and the diversity of our different cultures. The members of the entertainment industry who have signed this statement, along with the thousands of individuals who have endorsed its message, all believe in building bridges through music and the arts as a means to achieving greater understanding and peace in the region.”
STATEMENT
We, the undersigned, believe that music is our shared language, one that transcends boundaries and brings people together under a common bond.
We believe that unifying events, such as singing competitions, are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and bring people of all backgrounds together through their shared love of music.
The annual Eurovision Song Contest embodies this unifying power. Every year, millions of people across Europe, and around the world, join together in a massive display of cultural exchange and celebration of music.
Unfortunately, this year, the spirit of togetherness is under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel, subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division.
We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise, exchange, and mutual recognition.
While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the best path to peace, we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer.
We call on all our friends and colleagues around the world to express their support for an exciting and successful Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv.
SIGNATORIES
Marina Abramović: Performance Artist
Orly Adelson: President ,Orly Adelson Productions
Jason Adelman: Vice President, Strategy & Brand Development at Brand Innovators
Marty Adelstein: CEO, Tomorrow Studios
Michael Adler: Partner, Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman
Alberto (Miss Caffeina): Artist
Mitch Allen: Music Producer
Keren Ann – Artist
Alfredo Arense: Journalist, Radio 3
Baccara (Cristina y María): Artist
Gary Barber: Former chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment
Craig Balsam: Co-founder, Razor & Tie Entertainment
Richard Baskind: Partner & Head of Music Simons, Muirhead & Burton
Carlos Baute: Artist
Aton Ben-Horin: Global VP, A&R at Warner Music Group
Daniel Benmayor: Filmmaker
Steven Bensusan: President ,Blue Note Entertainment Group
Maya Binkin: The Art Pilgrim
Neil Blair: The Blair Partnership
Evan Bogart: Hit Songwriter, President Boardwalk Ent.
Joshua P. Binder: Partner, Rotherberg, Mohr, and Binder LLP.
Harvey Brown: Professor
Scooter Braun: Founder, SB Projects
David Byrnes: Partner, Ziffren Brittenham ,LLP
Simon Callow: Actor
Ellie Cannon: Doctor and Media Personality
Caroline Civia: President of Clic Entertainment
Isabel Coixet: Filmmaker
Conchita (María Concepción Mendívil): Artist
Deborah Conway: Artist
Jim Cooperman: Senior VP Legal & Business Affairs, The Madison Square Garden Company
Rob Cowan: Point Blank
Rory Cowan: Actor
Josh Deutsch: Chairman/CEO ,Downtown Records
David Draiman: Musician and front man of Disturbed
Craig Emanuel: Partner, Entertainment & Media, Paul Hastings
Ron Fair: Record Producer & CEO, Faircraft Inc.
Erica Forster: VP of Music Partnerships, DanceOn
Gary Foster: Principal, Krasnoff Foster Productions
Daryl Friedman: Chief Advocacy & Industry Relations Officer, The
Recording Academy/ GRAMMYs
Stephen Fry: Actor, Comedian
Saul Galpern: President, Nude Music Group
Andrew Genger: Red Light Management
Gary Gersh: President, Global Talent, A.E.G. Presents
Gary Ginsberg: Senior VP, Softbank
Daniel Glass: President & Founder, Glassnote Entertainment Group
David Glick: Founder & CEO, Edge Group
Andrew Gould: President of A&R, Downtown Music Publishing
Trudy Green: Trudy Green Management/HK Management
Matt Greenberg: Ritholz Levy Fields LLP
Steve Greenberg: President, S-Curve Records
Sarah Halioua, Producer, Visionnaire Films
Ronnie Harris: Harris & Trotter LLP
Scott Hoffman: Artist (Scissor Sisters), Songwriter and Producer
Neil Jacobson: President, Geffen Records
Zach Katz: Former President of A&R BMG, CEO Raised In Space
Larry Katz: Esq., Lawrence H. Katz, P.C
Allison Kaye: President of SB Projects
Adam Kenwright: Executive Vice President at Ambassador Theatre Group
Ilan Kidron: Artist (Potbelleez)
Amanda Kogan: William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME)
Rick Krim: Former Co-President, Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Rosa Lagarrigue: CEO, RLM
Mollie Lehman: A&R at Atlantic Records
Colin Lester: CEO, JEM Artists
David Levy: Partner & Co-Head, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Lior: Artist
David Lonner: CEO, Oasis Media Group
Javier López: Artist
Iona de Macedo: Entertainment industry
Ben Maddahi: President of Unrestricted
Imran Majid: EVP/Co-Head of A&R, Columbia Records
Orly Marley
David Mazouz: Actor
Betty Missiego: Artist
Al Murray: Comedian
Mónica Naranjo, Artist
Caroline Norbury: CEO – Creative England
Tracy Ann Oberman: Actress
Antonio Martos Ortiz: Artist
Sharon Osbourne: Manager, Businesswoman, Television Star
Scott Packman, Former Senior EVP & General Counsel; Managing Member of SSP Partners
Jose Ramón Pardo: Journalist, RNE
Donald S. Passman: Partner, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, & Brown, Inc.
Lucía Pérez: Producer, Maestranza Films
Antonio Pérez: Maestranza Films
Dean Raise: C3 Presents
David Renzer: Former Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group
Rachel Riley: Actress, TV Presenter
Lindy Robbins: Multi-platinum Songwriter
Jaimison M. Roberts: Attorney at Law
Dan Rosen: CEO, Australian Recording Industry Association
Hanna Rochelle: Founder & President, Lyric Culture
Rick Rosen: Co-Founder & Head of Television, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Haim Saban: Businessman, Philanthropist and Producer
Marta Sánchez: Artist
Rafa Sánchez: Artist
Paul Schindler: Senior Chair of the New York Entertainment & Media Practice, Greenberg Traurig LLC
Steve Schnur: Worldwide Executive & Music President, Electronic Arts
Sam Schwartz: Partner, Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency
Jonathan Shalit OBE: Chairman – InterTalent Rights Group
Ben Silverman: Chairman & Co-CEO, Propagate Content
Gene Simmons: Band member of KISS
Ralph Simon: Chairman & CEO, Mobilium Global Limited
David Simone: President – DSW Entertainment
Soraya: Artist
Jeff Sosnow: SVP of A&R at Warner Music Group
Jose Ortega Soto (Manzanita): Artist
Gary Stiffelman: Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Aaron Symonds: Film Composer
Traci Szymanski: President of Co-Star Entertainment/Israelife Media Group
Sharon Tal Yguado: Head of Event Series at Amazon
Adam Taylor: President, APM Music
Joyce Trabulus: Manager
Mario Vaquerizo: Artist and TV & Radio Collaborator
José Sainz de Vicuña: President, Impala films
Peter Wade: Producer and President of WonderSound
** Note – The signers of this statement do so as individuals on their own behalf and not on behalf of their companies or organizations. All organizations and companies listed are for affiliation purposes only.
Notes to editors:
Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) is a non-profit organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry who have come together to promote the arts as a means to peace, support artistic freedom, and counter the cultural boycott of Israel. CCFP is apolitical, and does not stand for any government official or party, and does not receive funding or support from any government, or government related entity. Instead, CCFP believes in artists and their ability to affect lives and effect change. Furthermore, CCFP’s advisory board is made up entirely of independent entertainment industry professionals and it is these entertainment industry professionals and staff that direct its day-to-day operations. More than 35,000 people have signed CCFP’s general anti-boycott petition [LINK].
