Saturday, October 1, 2005
Get your buckets ready. Rachel Corrie is to have her own cantata performed in her memory in London: The Skies are Weeping. Please don't miss the email from Barry Shaw of The Netanya Terror Victims Fund that I've quoted in the extended entry.
November 1st, 7.45
The Skies are Weeping
A Concert for Justice and Peace
In memory of all the lives lost during the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
Introduced by Cindy Corrie
World Premiere The Skies Are Weeping. Cantata for soprano, chamber choir and percussion ensemble, Op 75 by Philip Munger, in memoriam Rachel Corrie, peace activist in Gaza. Original US premiere cancelled after threats were received by principals involved.
UK Premiere The Singer of Wind and Rain - A setting of Five Palestinian lyrics by Gregory Youtz
Peter Crockford Conductor
Deborah Fink Soprano
Dominic Saunders Piano
Coro Cervantes
The London Percussion Ensemble
Tickets: £17.50, £15.50, £13.50, £10
Hackney Empire, Mare Street, E8 1EJ
Box Office: 020 8985 2424
With grants from Arts Council England and the Holst Foundation
For more information, go to: http://weepingskies.blogspot... or email [snip]
Donations
If you would like to donate towards putting on the concert, cheques should be made payable to [snip]. Surplus funds will go to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme [Perhaps the sponsors should visit? -Sol]. Anyone sending donations of £100 or over will be listed in the programme and invited to our reception afterwards [And subsequently eaten by the vampires listed under Patrons and Supporters below...].
...
Patrons and supporters include:
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Prof Noam Chomsky, Julie Christie, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Sir Richard Eyre, Moris Farhi MBE, Uri Fruchtman, Jeremy Hardy, Miriam Karlin, Dr Jane Manning OBE, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Susie Orbach, Roger Lloyd Pack, Dr Ilan Pappe, Anthony Payne, John Pilger, Harold Pinter CH, Lynne Reid Banks, Afif Safieh - former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, Sir Antony Sher, Prof Avi Shlaim, Clare Short MP, Baroness Jenny Tonge, Andy de la Tour, Frances de la Tour, Susannah York
The Corrie Family, Jocelyn Hurndall, Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Musicians Against Nuclear Arms, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Socialists¹ Group, Just Peace UK, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Council for Arab-British Understanding
Here is the introduction that arrived with this email announcement. I cannot improve upon it:
I was more horrified to read its contents. A supporter of Palestinian terror is being elevated to sainthood in London.
Rachel Corrie, a member of ISM which assists, among others, the activities of Hamas not only has a West End play in her name. Now she is being 'honored' with a cantata and a 'distinguished' rollcall of artists and politicians will attend the world premier...
On behalf of all Israeli victims of Palestinian terror, may I scream out in pain and sadness in the memory of the other Rachels ?
Rachel Levy, aged 17, blown up by a Palestinian suicide killer outside a grocery store.
Rachel Levi, aged, 19, shot by a Palestinian while waiting for a bus.
Rachel Gavish, killed while celebrating Passover at the Park Hotel with her family.
Rachel Charhi, blown up at a Tel Aviv cafe by a Palestinian bomber. She leaves 3 kids.
Rachel Shabo, murdered with her three children in her home by a Palestinian gunman.
And finally, 16 year old RACHEL THALER. She was blown up at a pizza parlour by another Palestinian suicide killer on 16th February 2002. Rachel Thaler was born in London, yet nobody has put on a play about her. Her grandparents still live in London, yet no politicians or anyone from the arts, have expressed condolences or attempted to raise the issue of Palestinian terror in her name. No British journalist has approached her mother, Ginette, to write about the martyrdom of Rachel Thaler.
No rallies, no plays, no cantatas, for the Jewish Rachels.
Rachel Thaler's parents allowed the donation of their murdered daughters organs for transplant.
Rachel Corrie's parents traveled to Ramallah to receive a plaque from corrupt arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat for the services of their daughter to the Palestinian cause.
The name of the Corrie concert is ' The Skies are Weeping'. They are indeed! The injustice of it all makes angels weep.
Barry Shaw
Founder and Chairman
The Netanya Terror Victims Fund
Netanya, Israel
netre@matav.net.il
Rachel Corrie in happier times:
Update: More information via the comments at LGF: See this page for transcript and audio as well as video of the meeting described in this article that gives the background of the cancellation of the cantata's Alaska showing.
Daniel Barenboim conducting?
Heh. That would be appropriate.
Maybe include this Haaretz report just to refresh memories.
"The Burrowers"
By Shlomi Eldar
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/630784.html
"The cost of building an average one, 800 meters long, from the nearby Brazil neighborhood or another one in the vicinity, is approximately $30,000. Another $30,000 has to be added to the cost for paying the owner of the house under which the tunnel is dug a great deal of money in Gaza terms but a drop in the ocean compared to the profits a good tunnel can yield with Gaza's craving for imported merchandise."
"Since the upheaval in local life the Israelis leaving the Philadelphi road and being replaced by the Egyptians tunneling has stopped for a time, as everyone waits to see
which way the wind is blowing."
The Egyptians don't kid around," Jaber says. "There, on the other side, if they find a house where a tunnel has been dug, it is the death penalty for everyone. There are no games. With them the law is the law and punishment is punishment. So we do not go into the houses with the tunnels there, no family will agree to that. We leave via orchards and groves, which are camouflaged well."
"Springtime For Hitler" was not that far fetched.
You've gotta be kidding . . ..
I don't find this too farfetched at all, sadly. And it ain't just England.
Here in Los Angeles about three months ago,our own Jewish Journal(the official paper of our local Jewish Federation, BTW) wrote an outrageous feature piece lionizing the Corries on the occasion of their being hosted at a Bel Air reception by prominent Jewish leftist and Israel basher Stanley Shinebaum.This happened when the Corries were `on tour' raising money for the ISM and other causes..not infrequently among leftist Jews.
The article was so delinquent in fact and biased that it could very well have been written by Ramzy Barzoud's `Palestine Chronicle' or Al Ahrum.
What's more surprising is that while the Journal received a number of letters (mine among them) protesting this they also received a number of letters, some from non-Jewish Europeans and Arabs congratulating them on their `courage'.along with letters from Jews with the same viewpoint. I'm sure they exercised editoial license in what got printed, but the fact remains that we are, as a people,our own worst enemy.
THAT little fact is much more important than a bunch of Jew haters putting out a racist cantata.
Our fathers would NEVER have allowed something like this to go forward peacefully. They were closer to the Holocaust then we are.
Here in Los Angeles, a major terror assault against Jewish synogogues and facilities scheduled by some local Muslims for high holidays in October was thwarted just by chance. I've linked the story, by Daniel Pipes on my site if anyone's interested.
High time we woke up and realized whom our enemies are and what they gave in store for us if they're successful.
L'Shana Tovah
-Freedom Fighter
I followed up on this "cantata" article and have noticed that the composer cites - at length - an article from Yediot Aharonot, in translation, that is apparently an interview with the bulldozer driver. He says "I have no mercy" and goes on to state how much he loves destroying Palestinian homes and so forth. It's so clearly false, cheap propaganda, and if you Google it (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+Yediot+Aharonot+%22I+have+no+mercy%22&btnG=Google+Search)
you get nothing but pro-Palestinian sites quoting an alleged translation from Gush Shalom. This is the sort of big lie - pure blood libel - that is rife in the Arab world and beginning to permeate American leftist thought. It's vile... and disheartening.
Laura, Can you send these links to camera.org? They have a page where they document false quotes of just this sort. Documentation is useful because some journalists working for reputable, mainstream publications have published false quotes of this sort.
I'm the composer of the musical work which uses the translation of the bulldozer driver's statement. The original article was published in Hebrew. The authenticity of the uncopyrighted translation has been verified to me by credible Israeli journalists, one of whom is one of the finest investigative journalists in the country.
Philip Munger
To Philip Munger:
Amira Hass, Gideon Levy and Akiva Eldar do not count as being "investigative journalists."
They aren't the journalists I asked to determine the authenticity.
Philip Munger