Join Adalah-NY as we protest "Israel's finest cultural emissary" and "Israel’s musical ambassador throughout the country and the world," the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, at 6pm on Tuesday, October 29.
More about the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO):
The IPO website aptly notes that the Orchestra serves as "Israel’s musical ambassador throughout the country and the
A performance last month by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was met with protests from Adalah-NY, who urged Carnegie Hall to cancel the orchestra’s appearance in response to the Palestinians’ call for a cultural boycott of the Israeli “apartheid state” that – in their perspective – is occupying Arab land, building settlements, and repressing Palestinians. Zubin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s musical director, summed up the boycott by saying, “As long as they keep building settlements the world will be anti-Israeli.”
Similar actions took place throughout the IPO's U.S. tour. In Las Vegas on October 29 and in Los Angeles on October 30, activists made it clear to Zubin Mehta and his orchestra that until they distance themselves from the Brand Israel campaign and take a stand against the Israeli oppression of Palestinian people, they will not be welcome in our communities.
Wherever the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra goes, protests seem to follow. Concert-goers planning to attend Tuesday's performance by the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall can expect to see a colorful outdoor demonstration of activists who say they oppose Israel's policies toward Palestinians.
The conductor was clearly displeased, and not only by his shabby temporary headquarters. He was unhappy about, but not surprised by news that Adalah-NY was staging yet another protest of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on Thursday night.
One performance will be inside, by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), and the other will take place outside the entrances to Disney Hall.
The IPO performs internationally as a cultural ambassador for Israel. Local protesters want to use the orchestra’s visit to Los Angeles to bring attention to what they call Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
When I received a press release from Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel gleefully informing me that “New Yorkers will protest at Carnegie Hall with music, songs, chants and street theater against the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and its complicity in Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people,” I actually laughed. After a day glued to news reports of missiles and mortars being lobbed at my friends’ homes and worrying about the soldiers – children of friends – serving in the area, it wasn’t hard to think of the planned protest as a bad joke.
