Friday, September 09, 2011

Those Peaceful Palestinians

Such a fun-loving bunch--they're now anti-music:
Up to 30 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were ejected from the Royal Albert Hall after attempting to drown out the orchestra.

They shouted anti-Israel statements throughout the concert, leading to clashes with members of the audience who wanted to hear the music. Witnesses reported seeing a fight break out.

Different groups of protesters stood up to chant at the start of each of the four pieces of the evening, meaning that fresh people had to be ejected each time.

Radio 3 broadcast the first piece, which lasted about seven minutes, including the protests.

When the protesters started again at the start of the second, the broadcast was halted and a recording of a different orchestra playing the same music was played instead.

The BBC tried to resume the broadcast at the start of the second part of the concert -- Prom 62 -- but further protests led to it being abandoned.

But audience members told The Daily Telegraph the protests did not deter the orchestra.
According to the Guardian:
Pro-Palestinian group The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had called for the BBC to cancel the concert, claiming that the Israeli orchestra showed "complicity in whitewashing Israel's persistent violations of international law and human rights".
I agree with Norm Geras:
I'd like to ask when the musicians of any other country accused of committing 'violations of international law and human rights' were subjected to this kind of protest. If it's about Israel and not about Jews (as the partisans of these poisonous initiatives always claim), there are sure to have been some recent occasions when the performances of Russian and Chinese, and (while I'm about it) American and British, musicians have been targeted in a similar way; so I'm surprised I haven't heard about that. I'd also like to comment on the idea that these were 'protesters'. Somehow it doesn't do them full justice. A protest can be staged without behaving like hoodlums and barbarians.

5 comments:

OBloodyHell said...

>> A protest can be staged without behaving like hoodlums and barbarians.

Not when the protesters ARE hoodlums and barbarians.

@nooil4pacifists said...

OBH: Yup.

Gringo said...

The Palestinians know how to win friends and influence people. While I have respect for most of the Palestinians I know, I have nothing but contempt for the Palestinian cause. I knew three generations of a Palestinian Christian family, many of whom lived in US. Very well educated people, but some in the later generations went off the deep end regarding Israel.

A grandson with a Ph.D. rants about Israel. No complaints about the Muslims, in spite of Christian cousins in the West Bank getting screwed for their faith, which was easy to find by Googling. No complaints from the grandson about the Muslims, in spite of what the grandfather told his children. The grandfather told his children before the Six Day War: get out of the West Bank. The reason: as a civil servant in the Jordanian government, he knew that Christians would always be passed over for promotions in favor of Muslims.

Gringo said...

An irony about the Palis protesting the concert because of "human rights violations" on the part of the Israelis.

The Palis were strong supporters of Saddam Hussein, in both Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2.

Human rights violations? What human rights violations?

OBloodyHell said...

Stardard libtard mantra, Gringo:
"Rules for thee, but not for me."