Closure of Palestinian literary festival

Following is a link to the letters page of the Guardian newspaper of 26th May relating to the closure by police of a Palestinian literary festival in Jerusalem and another letter dealing with the settler question: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/26/israel-palestine-literary-festival-settlers

Tel Aviv show not official?

http://www.forward.com/articles/106317/

Here's an interesting article on the Israel matter, which claims the Tel Aviv gig is still not official. Also one or two dubious/intriguing claims/quotes and more photos of the protest in New York.

Protest at Radio City Music Hall show in New York

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-york-activists-to-singer-leonard.html

Protestors chanted “Leonard, Leonard Have A Heart, Don’t Help Apartheid With Your Art” and sang “Ain’t Gonna Let Occupation Turn Me Round, Gonna Keep On Walkin’, Keep Boycottin’” to the tune of “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round”. A particular crowd favorite was, to the tune of Frere Jacques,

Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping,

Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen

While your songs are so fine

Israel’s taking Palestine

Don’t go there, Don’t go there

Here's a photo from the protest, or at least some graffiti.

Healing apartheid, not its victims? PACBI open letter to Leonard Cohen

http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1006

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel writes its own open letter to Leonard Cohen: "Entertaining any apartheid regime is morally wrong. No true humanist should disagree."

Protesting in the streets against the Israel show!

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/16/18595447.php

"New York activists armed with acoustic guitars and drawings of guitars turning into barbed-wire fences will sing and pass out flyers outside singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen's Radio City Music Hall concert Sunday night. The activists are asking Cohen to cancel his September concert in Israel, supporting earlier calls by Jews, Palestinians and Israeli citizens, and by residents of the UK. The sing-in will occur during the week of the 61st anniversary of the Nakba, when, with the founding of the State of Israel, Israeli forces expelled 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and destroyed over 500 villages."

Comment is Free - Hillel Schenker

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/14/leonard-cohen-israel-palestine

Hillel Schenker comments on the news that 'a group of academics in the UK – among them Professor Haim Bresheeth, who spent many years in Israel – is urging Leonard Cohen to cancel his concert in Israel, scheduled for 24 September, because "your songs have been part of the soundtrack of our lives". It is not "the right action" according to the Buddhist precepts he identifies with, because it sends a message of support for Israeli military actions against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.'

The paradox of Israel's pursuit of might - Max Hastings

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/israel-middle-east-max-hastings

Max Hastings writes of his growing disillusionment towards the state of Israel: "Between the late 1970s and 1990s, I was one of those foreigners who progressively fell out of love with Israel. I became persuaded that the arrogance of its faith in its own military power had induced its people to go far beyond a belief in defending their own society, to support a polity committed to perpetuating a great historic injustice against the Palestinians."