BRICUP Newsletter 68 September 2013
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BRICUP Newsletter 68 September 2013 www.bricup.org.uk [email protected] CONTENTS Kennedy, an enfant terrible of the classical music world , had not played at the Proms for years but P 1. Sound and fury at the Proms over took advantage of a radical mix of programmes this “apartheid” remark time to revisit the Four Seasons with a number of jazz musicians, his own largely Polish Orchestra of P 2. The PACBI Column Life and 17 players from the Palestine Strings wearing trademark keffiyehs. Aged between 12 and On the Academic Boycott Front: A 23, these protégées of the Edward Said National Pioneering Campaign Conservatory of Music demonstrated considerable artistry in one of the world’s greatest performance spaces. No wonder the Zionist reaction to their P 4. The turning of the screw mentor’s solidarity comment was so swift and strong. P 6. Hasbara arrives at the Edinburgh Within days the Jewish Chronicle announced with Fringe satisfaction that the BBC intended deleting Kennedy’s remark from its edited TV broadcast of the concert. Baroness Ruth Deech, a prominent P 7. Notices. Zionist and former BBC governor, had pronounced his words “offensive and untrue” and unfit to be **** heard during a Prom concert. The BBC, saying they Sound and fury at the Proms over did not “fall within the editorial remit of the proms as a classical music festival,” duly obliged. The “apartheid” remark critically-acclaimed concert went out on BBC4 on August 23 without the offending comments. Violinist Nigel Kennedy sent Israel’s apologists into a mighty spin during a Promenade concert in In the interim BRICUP chairman Jonathan London on August 8 when he used the word Rosenhead had joined supporters of Jews for “apartheid” to refer to the life circumstances of the Boycotting Israeli Goods, among them actress young Palestinian musicians with whom he was Miriam Margolyes and writer/comedian Alexei sharing the stage. Sayle, in signing a letter contesting the BBC censorship decision. It was published on August 22 “Ladies and gentlemen,” said Kennedy, addressing in the Daily Telegraph (scroll down through the an overwhelmingly supportive audience for his other letters to find it here) along with a fair-minded innovative performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at article by the paper’s Religious Affairs editor John the Royal Albert Hall, “ it’s a bit facile to say it, but Bingham. The Jewish Chronicle named BRICUP we all know from experiencing this night of music and Rosenhead in its coverage. tonight, that given equality and getting rid of apartheid gives a beautiful chance for amazing The issue was taken up by wider activist circles with things to happen.” writers' organisation PEN and Index on Censorship 1 weighing in in Kennedy's defence. Rock legend September 2 to slag off Kennedy and Waters as part Roger Waters of Pink Floyd was moved to issue a of a sinister army of antisemites holding Israel long-awaited statement calling on fellow musicians responsible for all the evils of the world. His attack to back the boycott. highlights the care supporters of BDS need to take in the terminology they use. Waters has defended A petition calling on the BBC to revoke its himself expertly when challenged, but drawing censorship decision quickly garnered more than attention to Baroness Deech’s Jewish-sounding 1,200 signatures. Music commentator Norman maiden name (“nee Fraenkel”) rather than Lebrecht, himself deeply pro-Israel, picked up the referencing her vociferous Zionism, and shooting story, calling into question the provenance of a down a pig-shaped zeppelin emblazoned with a Star statement in which Kennedy described his of David (albeit alongside other symbols of comments as “purely descriptive and not political oppression), has handed ammunition to the enemies whatsoever” and denounced the BBC’s “imperial of BDS. A call from a small group of German Jews lack of impartiality”. The flighty genius does not to boycott a forthcoming concert by Waters has won own a computer or use any new-fangled digital mainstream coverage denied to the injustice done to media so the statement was issued via a musician Kennedy. friend’s Facebook page. As a matter of interest, Lebrecht later posted YouTube footage of the It remains to be seen, at the time of writing, if any concert, generating serious and largely favourable further controversy will follow Kennedy’s planned discussion on his blog. appearance at the Last Night of the Proms on September 7. As he himself noted when news of the Matters were complicated by Kennedy’s own BBC’s censorship plan became known: “ . the manager Terri Robson - presumably with an eye to BBC has created . a huge platform for the her charge’s potentially lucrative future bookings - discussion of its own impartiality, its respect (or lack publicly suggesting that the BBC was within its of it) for free speech and for the discussion of the rights to censor him. Thanks to links with pro- miserable apartheid forced on the Palestinian people Palestinian classical musicians who are in contact by the Israeli government supported by so many with Kennedy – he does at least own a mobile phone governments from the outside world.” - we were primed and ready when he once again re- iterated his pro-Palestinian stance in an open letter to Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, the Palestine Strings. He observed that his comment Secretary, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods. would surely not “have been censored if it had been referring to the benefits of the demise of the apartheid in South Africa when playing with an **** African ensemble”. The PACBI Column Kennedy’s letter suggested that the Palestine Strings had been detained for 12 hours on their On the Academic Boycott Front: A return to Palestine. This turned out to be a Pioneering Campaign misunderstanding. The players were not detained but Edward Said National Conservatory of Music’s Last month, over 150 academics, including at least Orchestras Manager, Tim Pottier, was held for 12 50 oral historians from across the globe, launched a hours at the Allenby Bridge. An official at the campaign to persuade the oral history community conservatory explained in a private email, "Tim is not to participate in the June 2014 'International now sadly used to long interrogations and waiting at Conference on Oral History’ organised by the Oral the Bridge, although the return from the Prom History Division of the Avraham Harman Institute established a record. The occupying authorities who of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of control all entries to Palestine know him far too well Jerusalem, and to put pressure on keynote speakers and, I suspect, do not like what he does." to cancel their participation [1]. At PACBI, we This incident, naturally enough, was not deemed found it important to highlight this campaign for its newsworthy by mainstream media. Indeed, although pioneering role in mobilizing a large group of the Telegraph’s Bingham refers to “a bitter row over academics and in building the networks needed to alleged censorship”, others showed zero interest in cancel an academic event. the BBC censorship story. One late entry into the fray was pundit Dominic Lawson who chose to use In recent months, there have been several victories his valedictory column in the Independent on on the academic boycott front, not least of which 2 were Stephen Hawking’s heeding of the boycott and develop a nuanced position on academic freedom if withdrawing from a conference sponsored by they wish to remain true to their commitment to Shimon Peres, the Teachers Union of Ireland’s human rights and their solidarity with the oppressed. endorsement of the academic boycott, the decision by the 100,000-strong federation of Francophone In this regard, the Hebrew University is deeply students in Belgium to sever all links with Israeli complicit in Israel’s ongoing occupation, universities, and the resolution in favor of academic colonization and apartheid policies, and in the boycott passed by the Asian American Studies violation of Palestinian rights. Not only does the Association. On the heels of this, a group of Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus extend academics, mainly in the US (USACBI), Britain into occupied land, an act illegal under international (BRICUP) and France (AURDIP), decided to take law, but it also treats its Palestinian students PACBI’s call for boycotting conferences at unequally by not affording them teaching services complicit Israeli institutions to a higher level. A offered to Jewish students. concerted and well-coordinated campaign has been launched, similar in nature to those in the cultural The Hebrew University conference boycott realm, to gather signatures from and mobilize the campaign took its letter to academics around the academic community against the oral history globe to gather a base of support from which to then conference at Hebrew University due to the approach the oral history society and potential institution’s well-documented complicity in Israel’s participants of the conference in Israel. Campaign violations of human rights and international law. organizers have sent numerous emails to academics, and spent countless hours explaining the campaign’s The campaign is based on the fundamental principle position that, in Alice Walker’s words, “now is not that the academic freedom afforded to individual the time” for academic engagement with Israeli academics does not extend to giving academic institutions. Pushing future conference organizers to institutions a carte blanche to freely conduct their choose destinations away from Israel, and ensuring activities any way they like and with total disregard participants do not attend, will need sustained to international law, principles of basic morality and action, and will need to take letter writing to the next human rights.