The disruption of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra concert in London on Thursday by BDS activists has gotten a fair amount of coverage in the news. The BDSers have gone too far with this one. Daily Telegraph columnist Brendan O’Neill says that “there is something very ugly about this attempt to ghettoise Israeli musicians”
Last night’s protest at the Proms against the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra represented a new low in anti-Israel agitation. It confirmed that everything and everyone connected with Israel is now looked upon by certain – mostly middle-class – radicals as toxic, diseased, a potential pollutant which must be kept out of decent Britain, perhaps by passing anti-Israeli quarantine laws. Not content with refusing to buy evil Israeli products and refusing to engage with evil Israeli academics, the anti-Israel lobby now wants to prevent people from hearing music played by evil Israeli musicians. They won’t be happy until everything Israeli – whether it’s fruit, books, ideas, visiting politicians or sweet, sweet music – is expelled from the UK.
No matter how much activists try to present this as a political campaign, designed to challenge Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, there is no doubting its visceral component. Modern-day Israel-bashers bring to mind those loopy people who claim to suffer from Chemical Sensitivity Disorder and who thus never wear deodorant or perfume or certain kinds of clothing and only eat organic foodstuffs lest they get poisoned by pesticides. Only middle-class radicals suffer from what we might call Israel Sensitivity Disorder, where they fight tooth and nail to ensure that they – and the whole of Britain – are never subjected to any idea or item that has its origins in poisonous Israel.
This has gone way beyond a normal political boycott, of the kind used by radicals in the past to put economic or political pressure on a section of the authorities. Rather, the aversion to everything Israeli has become a weird way of life for some people, where the aim is not so much to achieve any political goals as it is to achieve an inner sensation of super moral smugness. They treat Israel as a uniquely evil, fantastically wicked nation, the most evil nation on Earth in fact, if not in human history, whose every product and thought must be kept at bay. There is a deeply censorious streak in all this. In refusing to engage with Israeli academics and now trying to shut up Israeli musicians, anti-Israel protesters undermine academic and artistic freedom – they stand in the way of the free exchange of ideas and even of music between peoples and nations. Their attempt to shut up the Israeli Phil was especially shocking, since the sound being made by that orchestra did not even contain any ideas, only beauty. Mashing together philistinism with high levels of that trendy malady, Israel Intolerance, these protesters sought to prevent the playing of music purely on the basis of who was playing it – people from Israel.
The great and terrible irony is that anti-Israel activists claim to be fighting against Israel’s imposition of an apartheid system in the Middle East, yet they themselves practise a kind of cultural apartheid against Israel, demanding the expulsion from polite European society of everything that originates in that country. The end result is the cultural ghettoisation of Israeli thinkers, artists and musicians. Perhaps the Israeli Phil should only play behind tall brick walls, so that the rest of us no longer have to hear their apparently political, oppressive music. As it happens, I am opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and I wholeheartedly support Palestinians’ right to determine their own national and political affairs. But since when has that also meant having to develop an allergy to the people and the many wonderful things that emanate from Israel.
Amen. I hate the Israeli occupation of the West Bank as much as the next man or woman but do not hate Israel as a consequence and refuse to boycott it. I don’t boycott countries, period, and even if I did I would not boycott Israel, a nation for which I have a certain admiration, despite its many problems and failings (if there are any nations out there that don’t have problems or failings, I’d like to know about them). If individuals want to boycott Israeli products in the supermarket, that’s their personal choice. I don’t care about it. I am, however, hostile to any suggestion of boycotting culture or academia. If someone exhorts me to boycott Israeli movies or scholarly lectures, I will impolitely tell him or her to f*** off. I have more to say about the BDS enterprise, which I argue is a futile waste of time and destined to fail. I will do so at the opportune moment.
UPDATE: Ynet News has an op-ed on the exaggerated claims of the BDSers.
The folks at Mondoweiss and the other anti-‘Zionist’ drek sites are jubilant at the success of the disruption. Because obviously, disrupting a overseas concert will give one the perfect image of the BDS crowd. And this case of anti-cultural thuggery is just the first step in ending the occupation (and Israel) as it was in the case of, well…
I’ll get back to you on that.
I’m glad they disrupted the concert. Let us remember how Israel has disrupted the lives of millions of Palestinians, imposed an illegal maritime blockade, seized property, imposed collective punishment and denied human rights. If the UK, where BDS is strong, does not allow some “disruption”, especially this month – when Palestine will ask for statehood from the UN, then Israel will go about its mission of eliminating historic Palestine and its people altogether.
I hundred per cent agree. The BDS move was just one of those narcissic moves “groupuscules” indulge in. About Israel, I was moved by this excellent paper in Haaretz about the present social demonstrations by Bradley Burston ” A special place in hell” : http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell.
Viva’s gotta be kidding! Palestinian Arabs have rejected every compromise to get their own sovereign state by sharing the area with Israel since before 1948. Even the not-exactly-friendly-to-Israel UN says their naval blockade of Gaza is 100% legal. When you have a neighbor whose charter goal is your total elimination and is trying to smuggle as many weapons as it can to harm the neighbor it despises, when Hamas ruled Gaza fires thousands of rockets for years that target civilians, you’re damn right they ought to be blockaded! And what is this “historic” “Palestine” you are talking about? if any other sovereign nation anywhere in the world blockaded a neighbor that was not only bent on destroying it, but hurled missiles at it on an almost daily basis, you wouldn’t hear a peep from anyone. let the only Jewish State in the whole world, and a very tiny one at that, try to defend itself, and all hell breaks loos! There were no demands for a Palestinian Arab state until after 1967; before that the Palestinian Arabs were content to be occupied by Egypt in Gaza and Jordan in the West Bank/Judea/Samaria as long as their overlords were other Arabs. Disrupting a concert or boycotting academics and businesses is eerily reminiscent of how the Nazis treated the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. BDS is nothing more or less than a Bigoted Diseased Syndrome and deserves to fail miserably everywhere it raises its ugly antisemitic rat-face.
@Mike You are so right.
When the 51 member States of the UN who refuse to recognize the right of Israel, a fellow member State, to exist, a dialogue may be possible.
Leftist groups in the US are pushing this BDS agenda in churches, colleged, universities, and commerce. Not a big success!