Arts & Entertainment

'Cultural Intifada'

Elvis Costello, Meg Ryan and others cancel Israel plans.

Marcy Oster
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

A

ctress Meg Ryan's decision to
cancel her appearance at last
week's Jerusalem Film Festival
didn't garner the same attention in Israel
as British rocker Elvis Costello when he
nixed his Israel concert this spring.
Both, however, were a reminder to Israelis
that in the eyes of much of the world, Israel's
politics and culture are inseparable.
The cancellations were part of a string
that Israel has experienced over the past
few months, including appearances by the
indie rock band the Pixies, singer Devendra
Banhart, alternative rockers Gorillaz, the
British band the Klaxons and American
soul singer Gil Scott-Heron. In February,
rock legend Carlos Santana withdrew from
a sold-out performance reportedly due to
pressure from pro-Palestinian groups.
Israelis have taken to calling this a "cul-
tural intifada" — borrowing a term used by
the Palestinians to describe their uprisings
against Israel.
"Intense pressure is being applied to
foreign artists not to come to Israel;' promi-
nent Israeli promoter Shuki Weiss, who has
brought such top-name acts to Israel as
Madonna and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters,
told the Israeli business daily Globes.
After the Pixies canceled last month,
Weiss called it "cultural terrorism."
"I am full of both sorrow and pain in light
of the fact that our repeated attempts to pres-
ent quality acts and festivals in Israel have
increasingly been falling victim to what I can
only describe as a form of cultural terrorism

that is targeting Israel and the arts world-
wide,"Weiss wrote in a statement.
The most recent high-profile cancellation,
by Ryan, came right after Israel's deadly May
31 interception of the Gaza-bound, Turkish-
flagged aid flotilla, which left nine passen-
gers dead. A day later, Ryan's staff e-mailed
the Jerusalem Film Festival to say she would
not be able to attend.
Reports that actor Dustin Hoffman also
canceled an appearance at the festival were
unfounded; Hoffman had never been sched-
uled to attend the event.
When Costello canceled his two concerts
in Tel Aviv at the end of June, he said the
decision was "a matter of instinct and con-
science."
In a messageposted on his website,
Costello wrote, "There are occasions when
merely having your name added to a concert
schedule may be interpreted as a political act
that resonates more than anything that might
be sung, and it may be assumed that one has
no mind for the suffering of the innocent:'
The cancellations have frustrated Israel's
music lovers, producers and friends.
Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar, whose
2007 movie Beaufort received an Academy
Award nomination for Best Foreign
Language Film, told JTA that the refusal
of artists to perform in Israel is a kind of
collective punishment of the culture-lov-
ing public — often the very public that is
"extra critical of Israeli policies."
Cedar said that while he believes a boycott
is "a legitimate way for an artist to express his
political views',' they should be political views
the artist has consistently and publicly held.
Some artists appear to be concerned that

their performances in Israel will be per-
ceived as a political endorsement of Israel's
policies.
When Banhart canceled a pair of Tel
Aviv performances two days before their
mid-June dates, a message posted on the
artist's website read: "We were coming to
share a human and not a political mes-
sage, but it seems that we are being used
to support views that are not our own.
We will be overjoyed to return to Israel on
the day that our presence is perceived and
reported on as a cultural event and not a
political one."
Asked what the Israeli Sport and Culture
Ministry is doing to stem the tide of cancella-
tions, a ministry spokesman said, "Nothing."
The cultural boycott of Israel has spread
beyond the borders of the Jewish state. Last
month in Spain, a float sponsored by the
Tel Aviv municipality was banned from
Madrid's gay pride parade. One reason for
the withdrawal cited by organizers: Tel Aviv
Mayor Ron Huldai had not condemned the
Gaza flotilla incident.
The same week, a popular Bob Dylan fan
site began blocking users inside Israel in
what the Danish site operator called a "cultur-
al boycott" in response to the flotilla incident.
Israel has faced similar situations. During
the second intifada in the early 2000s,
numerous artists canceled appearances in
the country due to security concerns.
Still, many acts are going through with
their scheduled performances. Some, like
the British rock group Jethro Tull, are tak-
ing pains to draw distinctions between
culture and politics.
After coming under pressure from

British singer Elton John performs in Ramat

Gan, Israel, on June 17.

pro-Palestinian groups such as the U.S.
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel, Jethro Tull reaffirmed
that it would be playing three concerts in
Israel in early August.
Frontman Ian Anderson said in a state-
ment linked to the concert dates that he has
"long maintained the position that culture
and the arts should be free of political and
religious censorship and a distance kept
between them!' Anderson also said he
would donate his concert proceeds to chari-
ties promoting co-existence.
Others have been more unabashedly
warm toward Israel. In mid-June, Elton
John, who has donated money to Israeli
causes, played before an enthusiastic crowd.
"Shalom, we are so happy to be back here!
Ain't nothing gonna stop us from coming,
baby,' the singer told the crowd. "Musicians
spread love and peace, and bring people
together. That's what we do. We don't cherry-
pick our conscience."
Musicians Rod Stewart and Rihanna also
performed in Israel last month. And last
Sunday, Ynet reported that American singer
Missy Elliott announced that after pressure
to cancel her July 15 show in Tel Aviv, she will
arrive in Israel a day early to tour the country
with her entourage of dancers and crew.

Jews

)111

Nate Bloom
Speci al to the Jewish News

Tweet Wars

Actress Lindsay Lohan's legal troubles
inspired an amusing Twitter sidelight.
Lohan's ex-girlfriend, DJ Samantha
Ronson, 32, responded to Joan Rivers'
vitriolic tweets about Lohan: "Hey,
Joan Rivers. You
have collagen older
than Lindsay; pick on
someone your own
age. Oh, wait, I guess
people that old can't
hear."
Ronson just told
Samantha
a British paper that
Ronson
crushing media

54

July 22 • 2010

attention helped end her relation-
ship with Lohan, and added that she's
bisexual: "I'm not gay. I am an equal
opportunity employer. I still go back
and forth."

Sporting Life

On June 3, the
Minnesota Twins
called up third base-
man Danny Valencia.
Born and raised
Ale
in the Miami area,
ini J Ph Valencia, 25, is the
Danny
son of a non-Jewish
Valencia
father and a Jewish
mother. He was raised Jewish and had
a bar mitzvah.
Los Angeles Lakers backup point

Jordan Farmar

guard Jordan Farmar,
23, raised Jewish
and the son of a
non-Jewish African-
American father and a
white Jewish mother,
recently signed with
the New Jersey Nets.
He and Sacramento
Kings player Omri
Casspi are the two
Jews in the NBA.

New Flicks

Charlotte

Gainsbourg

Opening Friday, July
23, are City of Your
Final Destination and
The Kids Are Alright.
City co-stars

Charlotte Gainsbourg, 38, as the
much younger mistress of a recently
deceased famous Uruguayan novelist
whose family disagrees about a pro-
posed biography of him. Directed by
James Ivory, the film's screenplay is by
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, 83, who fled to
the U.K. from Nazi Germany in 1939.
Kids is gay filmmaker Lisa
Cholodenko's comedy about a les-
bian couple (Julianne Moore and
Annette Bening) with two teenagers
fathered by an anonymous donor
(Mark Ruffalo), who unexpectedly
becomes Moore's love interest. Sasha
Spielberg, 21, daughter of director
Steven Spielberg, and Zosia Mamet,
22, daughter of writer David Mamet,
each has a small part. ❑