Leonard Cohen plays in Tel Aviv - not in Ramallah
Marian Houk
September 27, 2009
Leonard Cohen, who celebrated his 75th birthday earlier this week, gave his widely-anticipated concert at Tel Aviv's Ramat Gan stadium on 24 September without any adverse incident -- reportedly bringing enormous pleasure to the mostly, but not entirely, Israeli audience.
He will not, however, be playing in Ramallah on 26 September, as had been proposed when the Palestinian boycott committee objected to his performing in Tel Aviv. Leonard Cohen's manager also reportedly agreed that he would sing for the benefit of -- and for the freedom of -- Palestinian prisoners, but that offer did not satisfy boycott activists. The whole matter then became too much, too controversial, and too exhausting, and it was decided in Ramallah simply to "freeze" the matter, and not to deal with the issues raised.
For the Palestinian boycott committee, the sole issue was that Leonard Cohen should have avoided Israel completely, and should have come only to Ramallah.
But was it reasonable, or realistic, for the boycott committee to insist that Leonard Cohen not play in Tel Aviv? Canadian author Naomi Klein made appearances to promote the Hebrew-language edition of her latest book ("Shock Doctrine") in several Israel cities (Haifa and Jaffa), and spoke at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, on a tour whose itinerary was arranged by the Palestinian boycott committee. She also went to Gaza -- something that can only be done with the agreement of the Israeli Military's COGAT office (Coordination of [Israeli] Government Affairs in the Territories], and it probably also involved the approval of the Israeli Government Press Office. (Klein says she is donating the proceeds of sales of the Hebrew-language edition to some worthy cause.]
The Palestinian boycott committee has called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel that they believe will help end Israel's 41-year military occupation of Palestinian territory seized in the June 1967 war.
Perhaps more importantly, as one Palestinian leader said in July (and as we reported earlier here), would it have benefitted the Palestinian people for Leonard Cohen to also play Ramallah -- and if so, why not?
The Jerusalem Post reported that Cohen told the audience of over 50,000 people: "I don't know if we will pass this way again" ... so, he promised "to give it everything tonight".
According to Haaretz and Israel's YNet, Cohen's last performance in Israel was in 1975.
A Youtube video shows Leonard Cohen performing "Hallelujah" in the Ramat Gan stadium on Thursday night:
"I did my best, it wasn't much", Cohen sang in this song, "I told the truth, I did not come to Tel Aviv to lie"... The audience roared in response.
One comment posted on Youtube says that this video, though excellent, "unfortunately cannot capture the 50,000 light sticks bathing the stadium in an eerie green glow. What a magical moment!!"
According to the JPost report, "Cohen spoke admiringly of the The Parents Circle-Families Forum group, to which part of the proceeds from this concert are going, praising bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents for 'the nobility of this exercise' in reconciliation. Their effort, he said, represented a 'holy holy holy response to human suffering' and 'God willing' it could mark the beginning of a process toward peace".
The JPost said that the concert transported the audience to "a vibrant spiritual high".
The JPost also said that "Ali Abu Awwad, an activist in the Parents Circle from the village of Beit Umar, whose brother was killed by the IDF, said that the common bond of the gathering was a group of broken hearts ... Talking about pressure from Palestinians that led to a boycott of a proposed show in Ramallah, Awwad said, 'I can't boycott a heart as big as Leonard Cohen's'."
Israeli author David Grossman was also there. Grossman supports the Geneva Initiative, and he publicly opposed the Second Lebanon War in August 2006, even before his son Uri, 20, was killed in the final hours of that Israeli military operation. The JPost reported that Grossman said: "It seems so easy to believe that war is the only possibility and that Israelis and Palestinians will continue to kill each other ... But those gathered here tonight know what we have inflicted upon each other and the price we have paid. Leonard Cohen, through his art, indicates that he understands this suffering".
After his son's death, Grossman refused to shake the hand of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had commanded the 2006 war. On Friday, almost a year to the day after his forced resignation, Olmert appeared in court, the first former Prime Minister indicted in Israel's history on charges of corruption and other serious offenses allegedly committed when he was in office. Olmert protested his innocence, and told journalists that "This is certainly not an easy scene for me. For the past three years I have been subject to an almost inhumane system of smearing and investigations, and have naturally paid a heavy price for this period of time".
The JPost noted, in its report on Leonard Cohen's concert, that "his songs transcended their recorded versions. A magnificent "Who By Fire," for instance, began with an oriental flourish and featured an exquisite harp passage. The biblical basis of songs like that one have always resonated uniquely in the Israel psyche, and hearing them delivered with such poignancy and conviction, in these days ahead of Yom Kippur, made for a particularly unforgettable experience ... the crowd applauded ecstatically when Cohen played favorites like 'Bird on the Wire' and 'Dance Me to the End of Love', but were utterly, respectfully silent in the quieter passages of songs, responding to Cohen's obvious passion and sincerity". The JPost report can be read in full here.
Haaretz reported that "the very instant the music began and Cohen opened his mouth to sing 'Dance Me to the End of Love', his celebrated deep voice overcame each and every centimeter of distance and signaled the triumphant tone of the entire evening ... As expected Cohen saved his most anticipated songs for the second and most memorable half of the show, 'Famous Blue Raincoat', 'Hallelujah' and 'First We Take Manhattan' which raised the entire stadium to its feet. Everyone in the audience felt like Cohen was personally singing to them and the enthusiastic and even ecstatic crowd wouldn't let the singer leave until his third encore ... Around 200 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families attended the concert".
It was, in fact, the bereaved families who explored the possibility for the Ramallah concert that the Palestinian boycott committee then opposed.
Haaretz reported that "Initially, Cohen asked Amnesty International to help him distribute the funds, which he hoped would help smaller groups that work for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. But Amnesty backed out of that arrangement, so Cohen started his own charity to distribute money to community groups. The charity is run by a board of Israelis and Palestinians". The Haaretz report can be read in full here.
The JPost reported that proceeds from the concert are estimated at $2 million, and will be managed by a new Fund for Reconcilation, Tolerance and Peace which will direct money "to oganizations working with Israeli and Palestinian organizations committed to reconciliation". The JPost reported that those include The Parents Circle, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian Center of Research and Information (IPCRI), Radio All for Peace ("Kol Hashalom" in Hebrew, Sawt as-Salaam or Sawt Bila Huduud in Arabic), as well as the Peres Peace Center.
This is a different group from the recipients announced earlier -- who included a Palestinian organization working with children, but they backed out of participation after the Palestinian boycott committee raised the heat and said no Palestinian group would (or should) accept funds generated by the Tel Aviv concert.
He will not, however, be playing in Ramallah on 26 September, as had been proposed when the Palestinian boycott committee objected to his performing in Tel Aviv. Leonard Cohen's manager also reportedly agreed that he would sing for the benefit of -- and for the freedom of -- Palestinian prisoners, but that offer did not satisfy boycott activists. The whole matter then became too much, too controversial, and too exhausting, and it was decided in Ramallah simply to "freeze" the matter, and not to deal with the issues raised.
For the Palestinian boycott committee, the sole issue was that Leonard Cohen should have avoided Israel completely, and should have come only to Ramallah.
But was it reasonable, or realistic, for the boycott committee to insist that Leonard Cohen not play in Tel Aviv? Canadian author Naomi Klein made appearances to promote the Hebrew-language edition of her latest book ("Shock Doctrine") in several Israel cities (Haifa and Jaffa), and spoke at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, on a tour whose itinerary was arranged by the Palestinian boycott committee. She also went to Gaza -- something that can only be done with the agreement of the Israeli Military's COGAT office (Coordination of [Israeli] Government Affairs in the Territories], and it probably also involved the approval of the Israeli Government Press Office. (Klein says she is donating the proceeds of sales of the Hebrew-language edition to some worthy cause.]
The Palestinian boycott committee has called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel that they believe will help end Israel's 41-year military occupation of Palestinian territory seized in the June 1967 war.
Perhaps more importantly, as one Palestinian leader said in July (and as we reported earlier here), would it have benefitted the Palestinian people for Leonard Cohen to also play Ramallah -- and if so, why not?
The Jerusalem Post reported that Cohen told the audience of over 50,000 people: "I don't know if we will pass this way again" ... so, he promised "to give it everything tonight".
According to Haaretz and Israel's YNet, Cohen's last performance in Israel was in 1975.
A Youtube video shows Leonard Cohen performing "Hallelujah" in the Ramat Gan stadium on Thursday night:
"I did my best, it wasn't much", Cohen sang in this song, "I told the truth, I did not come to Tel Aviv to lie"... The audience roared in response.
One comment posted on Youtube says that this video, though excellent, "unfortunately cannot capture the 50,000 light sticks bathing the stadium in an eerie green glow. What a magical moment!!"
According to the JPost report, "Cohen spoke admiringly of the The Parents Circle-Families Forum group, to which part of the proceeds from this concert are going, praising bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents for 'the nobility of this exercise' in reconciliation. Their effort, he said, represented a 'holy holy holy response to human suffering' and 'God willing' it could mark the beginning of a process toward peace".
The JPost said that the concert transported the audience to "a vibrant spiritual high".
The JPost also said that "Ali Abu Awwad, an activist in the Parents Circle from the village of Beit Umar, whose brother was killed by the IDF, said that the common bond of the gathering was a group of broken hearts ... Talking about pressure from Palestinians that led to a boycott of a proposed show in Ramallah, Awwad said, 'I can't boycott a heart as big as Leonard Cohen's'."
Israeli author David Grossman was also there. Grossman supports the Geneva Initiative, and he publicly opposed the Second Lebanon War in August 2006, even before his son Uri, 20, was killed in the final hours of that Israeli military operation. The JPost reported that Grossman said: "It seems so easy to believe that war is the only possibility and that Israelis and Palestinians will continue to kill each other ... But those gathered here tonight know what we have inflicted upon each other and the price we have paid. Leonard Cohen, through his art, indicates that he understands this suffering".
After his son's death, Grossman refused to shake the hand of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had commanded the 2006 war. On Friday, almost a year to the day after his forced resignation, Olmert appeared in court, the first former Prime Minister indicted in Israel's history on charges of corruption and other serious offenses allegedly committed when he was in office. Olmert protested his innocence, and told journalists that "This is certainly not an easy scene for me. For the past three years I have been subject to an almost inhumane system of smearing and investigations, and have naturally paid a heavy price for this period of time".
The JPost noted, in its report on Leonard Cohen's concert, that "his songs transcended their recorded versions. A magnificent "Who By Fire," for instance, began with an oriental flourish and featured an exquisite harp passage. The biblical basis of songs like that one have always resonated uniquely in the Israel psyche, and hearing them delivered with such poignancy and conviction, in these days ahead of Yom Kippur, made for a particularly unforgettable experience ... the crowd applauded ecstatically when Cohen played favorites like 'Bird on the Wire' and 'Dance Me to the End of Love', but were utterly, respectfully silent in the quieter passages of songs, responding to Cohen's obvious passion and sincerity". The JPost report can be read in full here.
Haaretz reported that "the very instant the music began and Cohen opened his mouth to sing 'Dance Me to the End of Love', his celebrated deep voice overcame each and every centimeter of distance and signaled the triumphant tone of the entire evening ... As expected Cohen saved his most anticipated songs for the second and most memorable half of the show, 'Famous Blue Raincoat', 'Hallelujah' and 'First We Take Manhattan' which raised the entire stadium to its feet. Everyone in the audience felt like Cohen was personally singing to them and the enthusiastic and even ecstatic crowd wouldn't let the singer leave until his third encore ... Around 200 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families attended the concert".
It was, in fact, the bereaved families who explored the possibility for the Ramallah concert that the Palestinian boycott committee then opposed.
Haaretz reported that "Initially, Cohen asked Amnesty International to help him distribute the funds, which he hoped would help smaller groups that work for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. But Amnesty backed out of that arrangement, so Cohen started his own charity to distribute money to community groups. The charity is run by a board of Israelis and Palestinians". The Haaretz report can be read in full here.
The JPost reported that proceeds from the concert are estimated at $2 million, and will be managed by a new Fund for Reconcilation, Tolerance and Peace which will direct money "to oganizations working with Israeli and Palestinian organizations committed to reconciliation". The JPost reported that those include The Parents Circle, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian Center of Research and Information (IPCRI), Radio All for Peace ("Kol Hashalom" in Hebrew, Sawt as-Salaam or Sawt Bila Huduud in Arabic), as well as the Peres Peace Center.
This is a different group from the recipients announced earlier -- who included a Palestinian organization working with children, but they backed out of participation after the Palestinian boycott committee raised the heat and said no Palestinian group would (or should) accept funds generated by the Tel Aviv concert.
Print
Email
