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Issue No. 134 | 03 May 2002 |
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The Hijacking of May Day
Interview: Youth Group History: Back To The Future Industrial: On the Street Unions: The New Deal Legal: The Police State Road Women: What Women Want Politics: Street Party International: The Costs of War Review: Songs of Solidarity Satire: Bono Satisfies World Hunger for Preachy Rockstars Poetry: Woomera
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Week in Review Tool Shed
 Doctors in the BushM1 Open LetterJulian OnlineMay Day DebacleMothers Day MusingsGreetings From Canada
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News Artists' Union Bans Voice For Peace
"When I saw the Palestinians with their hands tied behind their backs, young men, I said 'It is like what the did to us in the Holocaust," Yarkoni told Army Radio. " We are people who have been through the Holocaust. How are we capable of doing these things?" The 77 year old said she understood the Israeli reserve soldiers who have refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, and revealed that one of her sons-in-law is among the nearly 500 who have signed letters refusing to serve. On May Day there were 41 Israeli conscientious objectors in jail for refusing to serve in the occupied territories. Generations of fans throughout Israel have listened to Yaffa's voice . Whenever troops marched into battle she would follow them in fatigues raising spirits with patriotic Hebrew songs. But her words last week were deemed so offensive that her union has called off a planned tribute which had been planned for two years. The head of the union is quoted in the LA Times as saying it was forced to make the move after members of the public flooded its offices with complaints and returned tickets purchased for the event, and after sponsors canceled financial support. The union leadership's reaction has caused a furore inside the union about the right of artists to freely express themselves. A campaign in support of Yaffa Yarkoni artists' freedom rights has been mounted. You can send a protest note by clicking here on the Israeli Union of Performing Artists website. The Israeli daily Maariv ran an opinion poll which showed the Israeli public is hostile to journalists, politicians and artists who use their voices to question the government in a time of crisis. The Maariv poll asked whether it was appropriate to cancel the performance honoring Yaffa Yarkoni after she spoke against Israel's policies in the territories, 55% said it was. Gidi Gov, a well-known pop singer, announced that he was quitting the Israeli Union of Performing Artists because they had canceled the tribute to Yarkoni. Moshe Tene, manager of the Tzavta Theater in Tel Aviv, announced that the theatre would hold its own tribute to Yarkoni on May 15. "I'm already receiving phone calls from artists who want to perform," Tene said. "But I'm also receiving phone calls from people who say they will never set foot in my theatre again. People are growing less and less tolerant. This happened to Yaffa last week, to Beilin ( a former Justice Minister) the week before. People and their opinions are being boycotted. Artists are afraid." Gidi Gov said that he was not scheduled to sing at Yarkoni's tribute but that he will certainly attend the Tzavta evening to show support for the singer. "She sang to the soldiers in every war," he said. "Her songs are the songs from my childhood. She is an elderly woman now, and she said what she thinks. Maybe many Israelis think the same way, although they would not say it in these ways. But it doesn't matter to me what she said, it matters to me that she had no protection."
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