Was it
a) the lack of adequate security?
...Pro-Palestinian demonstrators managed to bring to a halt the performance of the Batsheva dance troupe on three separate nights during one of the country’s biggest arts festivals...during their final performance on Saturday night, up to 20 protesters entered the Edinburgh Playhouse auditorium and “ran amok” during performance, forcing security staff to eject them at least nine times.
b) that the dancers presented a rather timid and cowed charcater, very un-Israeli:
Witnesses reported that on each occasion the dancers stood stock still on stage, the curtain was lowered and the house lights brought up until the protesters were ejected.
c) that the audience seemed to be uninvolved accept for a post-demo cheer:
At the end of their performance, the highly-regarded, ethnically diverse contemporary dance group was greeted with enthusiastic applause and standing ovations...One audience member told The Daily Telegraph: “A few audience members, including a group including several children, left after the first disruption but other than that the audience remained calm and seated.
d) that the police ignored a criminal act and permitted threatening behavior::
e) or that they included the music of the German anti-Semite - and banned in Israel - Wagner:More than 200 protesters have also rallied outside the theatre and have been seen shouting abuse at patrons as they left. No arrests have been made.“As we left the protesters simply screamed and yelled angrily, behind a line of police.”
During their three one-hour performances of “Hora”, they danced to a "mash up" including the Star Wars theme and music from Richard Wagner, the renowned German composer.
f) or the scurrilous and fascist attitude of certain 'persons of the spirit'
Leading up to the festival writers and artists including Iain Banks, Tom Leonard and Al Kennedy called for the festival's artistic director Jonathan Mills to axe the Israeli dance troupe.
g) or the craven response of the festival spokeswoman, who viewed the protest and the dance performance equally and who said:
h) or that the most robust and confrontational counter-attack came from...Brendan O'Neill who I presume is not Jewish:"The festival supports freedom of expression and people's right to protest. “It welcomes constructive criticism, regularly facilitates debates and recognises the right to peaceful and orderly protest in any public place including outside its theatres. Equally the festival defends the rights of all artists, irrespective of nationality, creed or culture to have their voices heard."
Boycotts of everything Israeli have well and truly crossed the line from political campaigns into expressions of bigotry against the people and produce of Israel...This highly intolerant effort by one group of artists to have another group of artists banned – or perhaps quarantined at the borders until they renounce their home country and everything it stands for – is part of a bigger chattering-class trend to ghettoise Israeli culture...they practise cultural apartheid against Israelis...But there is nothing political about these censorious efforts to keep everything Israeli out of Britain. It is just an acceptable form of bigotry, a way of advertising one’s own moral decency by contrasting oneself to an inferior, infected people from Over There.
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2 comments:
Yes the dancers did stop , but not timid , cowered etc. It was a planned response . They came in a line to the front of stage and stood like soldiers to attention . They did not speak . The lights went up . It was the audience that responded in a spontaneous standing ovation . It drowned out the psc and carried on till they were ejected.
The Bat Sheva response was at once defiant and dignified.
As I said the first night , first report first hand.
The security arrangements were a shambles . On the first night I walked straight in without even showing my ticket . There was one trestle table for checking bags. It appeared optional. Some people were being checked if they happened to enter by the table. Others entering on the left bypassed security.
Even so what does a trestle table search do ? So you cut out a few flags.
The need was inside . More security to eject so as to eject in seconds rather than tens of seconds .
Also
It was hilarious watching these Communists using Marxist propaganda techniques to maximum effect .
Every so often the wild cheering would start as another supposed theatre goer had a sudden change of heart , left the building and handed in his ticket for ceremonial burning . Hilarious as it was usually the same PSC extra going through the ridiculous charade .
Pure theatre which ordinarily could be laughed away but the frightening aspect is that there was only Psc there to share in this mass delusion . They were playing to themselves , egging themselves on to greater heights of fanatical screaming and abuse of theatre goers .
I have some great footage . It will be blogged shortly
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