Around 50 members of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement gathered at a rally yesterday in response to the premiere performance of Batsheva Dance Company’s four-day run of Sadeh21. Outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), signs and slogans denounced the Israeli Foreign Ministry-funded troupe’s participation in a campaign called “Brand Israel,” which, according to literature distributed by the organizers, seeks “to distract from the facts of Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land.”

Now and then, Ohad Naharin tells a journalist what he thinks about his country’s politics. “There is so much hatred,” he said to Anna Kisselgoff of the Times some years ago, “and I’m not talking about any particular group.” I think he is talking about a particular group, but that doesn’t mean that the other group likes him. Outside BAM last night was a group of pro-Palestinians, chanting and waving placards to the effect that BAM should not have invited a company from Israel.