Thursday, May 31 2012

Over 30,000 people are expected to attend the opening concert of Madonna’s world tour “MDNA” tonight (Thursday) in Israel. The concert is being billed as a “peace concert” and costs more than NIS 15 million to produce.

One of Madonna’s dancers, a Palestinian named Ali Ramadani already made headlines after tweeting about his visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque: “At the amazing Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. I don’t want to say it’s in Israel, but Palestine, strength and honor.” A few Israeli newspapers are already reporting it as a “controversy.”

Madonna invited a variety of progressive and left-wing groups to come to her concert for free tonight, including residents of Neve Shalom (an Arab-Jewish cooperative village near Jerusalem), Combatants for Peace, Shatil and Peace Now (Hebrew). The invitation was made through the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO forum, a network of over 100 NGOs working towards peace in the region.

Anarchists Against the Wall was also invited but declined, citing that Palestinians under occupation do not have the most basic rights, let alone the ability to attend such a concert. Heere is a statement from Boycott from Within:

Madonna is planned to perform in Israel, choosing to disregard many calls made by Palestinians, Israelis and internationals asking her to heed the Palestinian call for BDS and refrain from performing here.
Each and every artist playing Israel while turning a blind eye to its ongoing occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people, is also helping it maintain a facade of business as usual while sending a green light to the continuation of the systematic violations of international law and the disrespect of universally recognized human rights.

Therefore, holding a “peace concert”, which utterly disregards Palestinian rights would be nothing but a blatant attempt at whitewashing Israeli crimes – an effort that may only be carried out with the help and active participation of your organization.It is an unfortunate situation that most Israeli NGOs will assist in such a re-branding campaign rather than shun away from it. We therefore urge you to side with freedom, justice and equality. Take these values seriously and refuse to lend a hand to the peace propaganda machine.

A group called Heartbeat based in Jerusalem, which is dedicated to empowering Israeli and Palestinian youth musicians, was also invited to Madonna’s concert. They debated whether to accept the offer. Director Aaron Shneyer told +972 over the phone today that three Heartbeat participants are attending the concert tonight.

“While we hold no expectations, we hope their presence will help raise awareness of the struggles and realities our members face and will encourage Madonna to use her influence to help us build respect and trust between Israelis and Palestinians so that the injustices and violence we face today will end,” he said.

The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement also declined the invitation, explaining that Madonna’s failure to ever condemn Israeli policies renders the word “peace” meaningless. From their statement posted on Facebook:

Madonna has never criticised the Israeli occupation, its separation policies, or its regime of privileges. Therefore, we believe that the reason she sought the presence of Israeli peace activists was to further a public image of an artist who promotes peace in the Middle East. We refuse to be a public relations gimmick for Madonna at the expense of the Palestinians. This is not our way.

http://972mag.com/madonna-invites-leftist-groups-to-concert-anarchists-refuse/47229/

http://972mag.com/watch-palestinians-going-to-madonna-concert-stopped-by-the-wall/47276/


"If Madonna calls...
...i'm not here!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPdra7S35Rg

Monday Jun 4th, 2012 6:26 PM

Anarchist Against the Wall PRESS RELEASE:

Anarchists Against the Wall: "We Challenge the Apartheid Government of Israel to Give Permits to 4 of Our Palestinian Comrades to Go to the Madonna Concert."

Anarchists Against the Wall were surprised to find out that they were one of the NGOs chosen by Madonna's production company, Shuki Weiss LTD, to receive free tickets to the extra concert slated for later this week. "We are shocked that the government, that shoots at us every Friday, by proxy of it's occupation army, is trying to buy us with tickets to Madonna's concert", said A, an activist with the group.

Anarchists Against the Wall is an action group of Israeli citizens who have been joining the weekly demonstrations in Palestinian villages, for the past decade. "Madonna has never criticised the Israeli occupation, its separation policies, or its regime of privileges. Therefore, we believe that the reason she sought the presence of Israeli peace activists was to further a public image of an artist who promotes peace in the Middle East. We refuse to be a public relations gimmick for Madonna at the expense of the Palestinians. This is not our way.
In 2005 a call was issued by Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions of the state of Israel and its institutions, including a cultural boycott. Madonna was approached by the movement before her 2009 concert in Israel, and was asked to respect the Palestinian call for cultural boycott of Israel and cancel her performance.

"The 2009 concert came at the heels of "Cast Lead", when over 1400 Palestinians were killed by the Israel's army in Gaza,'" A says, "Shuki Weiss LTD, along with a group of other producers of big name celebrities calling themselves 'Creative Community for Peace', work hand in hand with the Israeli Government in an attempt to use these concerts to whitewash the brutal military occupation of the Palestinian people, and present an image of normalcy in a place where apartheid and ethnic cleansing is being practiced as daily routine. Madonna's performances are just one example of the deliberate use of big names from abroad to divert the world's attention from these policies. Madonna's concert is an approval of apartheid."


http://livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com/2012/05/anarchists-against-wall-sheikh-jarrah.html

So not only did Madonna ignore the fleeners declaring that she must boycott Israel or else she is evil, she's doing so well there and likes it so much she added an extra concert. And as a peaceful gesture, she gave a handful of tickets to some whining mopes from groups nobody's ever heard of and whose response is to write wivvering manifesti on LAndmen Indymedia.

Sounds like Israel 3, wivvering manifesti writers 0.