Reports are emerging that the great oud player and composer Marcel Khalifé (a UNESCO “Artist for Peace” was barred from giving a scheduled performance in San Diego because the venue felt he should be “balanced out” with an Israeli musician:
Khalifé has a sizable number of North American tour dates ahead of him over the next few months at places like the Kennedy Center and Boston’s Berklee College of Music’s Performance Hall. In other words, Khalifé ain’t no dimestore oud player, and venues who regularly host Lebanese classical music ought to be honored by his interest.
That’s not the case for San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Theatre at the Salvation Army’s Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, who have forced Khalifé to look elsewhere for a place to play in the area. It’s not so much that the Kroc Theatre folks don’t like the cut of Khalifé’s jib: rather, they feel the show would be “divisive” and “unbalanced” without an Israeli performer taking the stage the same night, according to a press release issued by Khalifé’s camp.
This sounds so incredibly stupid I have a hard time believing it’s true, but considering these kind of tactics are used by pro-Israel activists routinely against academics, who knows…
Update: Once again, unbelievably it appears to be true.
interesting….I’ve seen this bouncing around the blogosphere for a day or two, but haven’t beem able to find out specifically to whom the quotes in parenthesis (“divisiveâ€� and “unbalancedâ€�) come from.
Can you help?
J
I wish you wouldn’t publish controversial articles and then sheepishly remark that, this probably isn’t true but who knows… kind of crap. What if the “press release” also claimed that the Israeli musician was likely to be a gay spy– would you still add on a “who knows…” at the end?
Moreover the idea that music can be “unbalanced” is http://www.yamansalahi.com/2007/09/23/censorship/marcel-khalife-and-the-war-for-objective-art/“ rel=”nofollow”>absurd in and of itself.
jose: at the bottom of the link in my first comment, there is a link to the original press release.
The press release is sketchy as hell, and I’m pretty sure press releases don’t go through fact checkers who filter out half-truths and exaggeration. Even the press release refers to it only as being “possibly discrimination”. As a critical media consumer, aren’t you the slightest bit skeptical or do you just flip that switch off whenever Arab discrimination is involved? National Enquirer-esque schlock like this thrives on the internet where verifiable sources have become quaint and credibility is so last fall.
A blog is not a newspaper. Bloggers can go stream-of-thought where reporters have to fact check everything. That means bloggers write much more like we think. If you don’t like the way Issandr thinks, you’re free to go to another blog where the author does. If you don’t like the blogging style period, feel free to stick to more formal publicaitons. In the meanwhile, credit Issandr for clearly thinking in a manner that keeps open the possibility of error and correction.
All I’m saying is all “reports” (issandr’s term) stem from copying and pasting bits from a completely unsubstantiated press release. The arabist isn’t just a wankery blog, it carries weight and that weight disappears when issandr descends to daniel pipes standards
I thought I’d made it clear from the way I wrote the post that I was skeptical about it. I have called Marcel Khalife’s US production company and have now emailed the person responsible, who was not available.
I would suggest that any reader from Southern California take the time to call the Joan B. Kroc Theater at (619) 269-1541 to speak to the person who is in charge of scheduling performances — I only got her voice mail.
Digging a little further since I wrote the above, I found the press release Yaman quoted (I did not see that he linked to it until just now –the url color is hard to distinguish from normal text). It is reproduced it full below and looks legit, as it is on the site of Khalife’s US publicist.
Banned and Denounced in the Middle East, Renowned Lebanese Musician Hits Unexpected Roadblock in U.S.A.: Discrimination in San Diego Will Not Stop Arab Oud Master & Composer’s Extensive North American Fall Tour
Just a few weeks ago, a venue in San Diego, CA denied on political grounds the use of their theater to renowned Lebanese musician Marcel Khalife, after local concert organizers had already arranged the event with the Salvation Army, who operates the venue, The Joan B. Kroc Theatre at the Salvation Army Corps Community Center. The possibly discriminatory incident demonstrates the misperceptions and tensions that exist in today’s political climate towards Arabs, even those who advocate for peace. Concert organizers—who had been in touch with the venue for several months and had followed their application process rigorously—were told that a concert by Khalife—an UNESCO Artist for Peace— would be “divisive” and “unbalanced” because it does not present an Israeli artist alongside Khalife.
Khalife has faced persecution in the Middle East, but never something this inflammatory in the U.S.A. Earlier this year, a performance of his was denounced in the Persian Gulf island nation Bahrain. Khalife’s music was also recently banned from radio, television, and on stage in Tunisia. Damned in parts of the Middle East for supporting freedom of expression, it is ironic that in the U.S.A. he would find similar efforts to quiet him. In spite of a small contingent in San Diego, Khalife has twenty four concerts from September 28 to November 18, including every major city in the U.S.A. and Canada, many of them in major performing arts centers. The tour will include a concert in San Diego at another venue.
Khalifé has often spoken out for peace and reconciliation, having risked his life performing in bombed-out concert halls during Lebanon’s civil war. Last August, Khalifé wrote to fellow UNESCO Artists for Peace in response to Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, “Nothing justifies our art other than to speak for those who cannot speak. This is the cause for which we dedicated our efforts, and the cause that endorsed our voices. We only wished to take it as far as we can, and vowed to release our work as songs of love for, and unity with, the victims of persecution everywhere.�
I am a resident of San Diego, and we’ve had quite a bit of community upheaval regarding this issue. I’m looking for exact information and trying to verify the reason behind canceling the event at the Joan B. Kroc theatre, but what I do know is that the concert is still happening on the same date but at a different location here in San Diego.
Here’s a link which gives a perspective that’s a little closer to the source:
Peace & blessings
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/09/25/salvation-armys-cancels-khalife-concert-due-to-al-awda-sponsorship-update/
[…] Silverstein got through to the Kroc Theater run by the Salvation Army that had refused to host a Marcel Khalife concert. The explanation he got from them was that they could not rent the venue to the Palestinian […]
I’ve been following this controversy with considerable interest, for both personal and professional reasons.
A fair amount of the confusion should be cleared up in the Oct. 11 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune’s weekly Night & Day section. It will feature an article, by mny colleague, Andrew Gilbert, for which Khalife himself was interviewed, along with the Salvation Army’s Capt. John VanCleef and one of the members of Al Awda, which is presenting Khalife’s concert here.