We’re trying to keep up on cancellations of two New York-area events involving Israel and Palestine. Both Pamela Geller, the professional Islam-basher, and Roger Waters, the rocker who’s done more for Palestine than anyone with his celebrity, were scheduled to speak in New York this month in Jewish spaces. Pressure campaigns came from opposite directions. Both venues canceled. Geller has been rescheduled in New Jersey; the Waters event is not happening, and there is some mystery surrounding the cancellation.
Re Geller, from the Jewish Week, by Stewart Ain:
Controversial activist Pamela Geller has agreed to speak at an Edison, NJ, congregation on Sunday night after the Great Neck Synagogue reluctantly canceled her forum on radical Islam and what she calls the imposition of Sharia law in the U.S.
“Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg of Congregation Beth-El extended the invitation to me personally this morning, and I commend him for it,” Geller told The Jewish Week Thursday. “The cancellation by the Great Neck Synagogue was particularly cowardly, as it sends the message that if leftists and Muslims defame those they hate loudly enough and for a long enough time, they will succeed in getting them silenced.”
She said she has also accepted an earlier speaking appearance on the same day at Chabad of Great Neck….
Great Neck Synagogue on Thursday morning cited security concerns and rising costs associated with the event in announcing the cancellation.
“As the notoriety and media exposure of the planned program this Sunday have increased, so has the legal liability and potential security exposure of our institution and its member families,” said the executive board of the Orthodox congregation in an email to members.
Meantime, Roger Waters was to reflect on his career on April 30th at the 92d Street Y in Manhattan. The event was cancelled last week, we reported because of Waters’s pressing engagement in Brazil. But it too turns out to be a political cancellation, according to the Forward; some idealist who aims to hold “Jewish groups accountable” is brandishing a scalp:
A pro-Israel watchdog is claiming victory after Manhattan cultural center 92Y cancelled an appearance by Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters.
Richard Allen, head of JCC Watch, said Waters got the cold shoulder he should have expected from the Jewish community considering his harsh criticism of Israel…
The 92Y has refused to comment on the flap.
Waters, a prominent critic of Israel, was supposed to talk about his illustrious career with British rock band at 92Y on April 30.
Last week, 92Y gave the impression that they had to cancel the event because of Waters. In actuality, they had agreed on a new date, but cancelled amid protests from JCC Watch and others.
92d Street Y still has a photo of Waters up, with the message, Sorry, no performances are available.
From the article–
“My call was meant to be in the form of a heads up — that there could be problems,” Rev. Goodhue said. “She has the right to speak — and I am certainly not going to go — but I have to question whether it is appropriate for a house of worship to give her the microphone. … I tried to convey to the rabbi that I would be deeply offended if a church invited a hate monger to come.”
Makes perfect sense. Suppose a church invited a well-known anti-semite to speak?
(I mean a real anti-semite, not someone critical of Israel or Zionism.) No one presumably would deny that anti-semites have free speech rights, but what sort of church would invite a person like that?
Pam Geller, when she first heard of cancellation, tells the Jewish Press – http://www.jewishpress.com/news/gellers-talk-cancelled-l-i-shul-sun-school-kids-threatened/2013/04/11/:
After thinking about it a little while, Pam tells the Jewish Week something completely different:
So first, the shul had to respond the threats posed by the “mob march” and protect the little children attending Sunday School from the “thugs.” Then, on second thought, the shul acted in a “particularly cowardly” way. What happened in the interim to change Pam’s mind? Probably she realized that she could get more mileage out of accusing the shul of cowardice than accusing the potential demonstrators of threatening children. Or maybe she just says anything that pops into her head without giving a thought to whether she’s making sense.
Geller, complaining: “as it sends the message that if leftists and Muslims defame those they hate loudly enough and for a long enough time, they will succeed in getting them silenced.”
But if rightists and hard-right Zionists defame those they hate loudly enough and for a long enough time, they will succeed in getting them silenced. AND (I suppose) Geller thinks that is a good thing.
Compare the life stories of Gellar and Waters. What do you see?
RE: “A pro-Israel watchdog is claiming victory after Manhattan cultural center 92Y cancelled an appearance by Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters. . . Richard Allen, head of JCC Watch, said Waters got the cold shoulder he should have expected from the Jewish community considering his harsh criticism of Israel . . .” ~ The Forward
MY COMMENT: I wonder if JCC Watch was responsible for Peter Beinart’s having been banned by The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA) from its annual Jewish book festival.
SEE: “Peter ‘Powder Keg’ Beinart is disinvited from gig at Atlanta Jewish book festival”, by Annie Robbins, Mondoweiss, 11/05/12
SOURCE – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/11/peter-powder-keg-beinart-is-disinvited-from-gig-at-atlanta-jewish-book-festival.html