leonardcohenforum.com

I wanted to share my disappointment with the fans and staff of Leonard Cohen about the organization of a concert in Ramallah.
This is not a concert that was organized because of Leonard's wish to do a concert there (which would have been totally fine), but due to the pressure of some anti-Israeli activists.
I do not think that this kind of pressure is profitable to anyone, and I am very sad and disappointed that Leonard Cohen and his tour managers decided to give in to that pressure.

yourih wrote: This is not a concert that was organized because of Leonard's wish to do a concert there (which would have been totally fine), but due to the pressure of some anti-Israeli activists.

huh ...?
where does this (dis)information come from ?

cool news for both Israelis&palestineans..
(to the good people among them/us, the rest can stay at home if they like)



...
'though I wear a uniform, I was not born to fight'

As a strong supporter of Israel, I raise my voice in support of both concerts.
I'm sure forum members who support the Palestinians will do the same, right?

Leonard Cohen sings in Ramallah Tel Aviv in addition to pressure Palestinian Territory
The Canadian Jewish singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen will next September cisjordana in the city of Ramallah two days after they do in Tel Aviv after pressure from activist groups Palestinians.

According to the newspaper Haaretz, Cohen had planned to act alone on September 24 at the Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv, but eventually it will offer 26 months a recital in the Palace of Culture in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority ( ANP).

Cohen's decision came after a group of Palestinian activists threatened a campaign to discourage them from acting in the State of Israel.

Palestinian groups announced campaigns such as world-renowned artists preventive action in the Jewish state.

These ads do not usually bear fruit, but in the case of Cohen, who has chosen to sing in the ground in Israel and the Palestinians after they spread rumors that he was preparing to cancel its tour of art through the region.

I think this may be one of the most exotic/interesting concerts of the tour. I wonder though how safe it is for a Jew to play in Ramallah
Here is info published by the local Palestinian news agency (Ma'an News Agency):
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?op ... =&ID=38821

...and here info/photos of the venue:

The Ramallah Cultural Palace is the first and only cultural centre of its kind in the Palestinian territories. The centre contains state-of-the-art facilities including a 736-seat auditorium, conference rooms, several exhibition halls designed to handle anything from intimate poetry recitals, to film premieres and big-ticket music events. The centre cost approximately $5 million to build and is the result of a six-year joint venture between the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Japanese government.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2865.shtml

Tough to see concerts being affected so much by the global political scenario. I would personally love to go to a concert irrespective of my nationality and location, just by the rights that I believe every common human being (like me) should have the rights to enjoy.

Happy to know about the concert happening.

The concert in Ramallah has not been confirmed yet. Let us wait for Jarkko's announcement on Monday (or so).
But even if it is true it is not by sure the result of pressure of anyone ...

It may be as "safe" or "unsafe" for Leonard to play in Ramallah as in Israel. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performed in Ramallah, and Barenboim goes there on a regular basis - no problem at all... When we went to Ramallah last autumn, we were not allowed to take the Jewish-Israeli members of our group, but that was not really due to security precautions or because the Palestinians would not have wanted to, but due to official Israeli rules...

yourih wrote:I wanted to share my disappointment with the fans and staff of Leonard Cohen about the organization of a concert in Ramallah.
This is not a concert that was organized because of Leonard's wish to do a concert there (which would have been totally fine), but due to the pressure of some anti-Israeli activists.
I do not think that this kind of pressure is profitable to anyone, and I am very sad and disappointed that Leonard Cohen and his tour managers decided to give in to that pressure.

If Leonard had merely given in to the pressure, he would not have come to the Middle East in the first place, mate! This is quite a constructive step, not a negative one...

zvulun wrote:cool news for both Israelis&palestineans..
(to the good people among them/us, the rest can stay at home if they like)

...
'though I wear a uniform, I was not born to fight'

Indeed! I could not agree more.

The fact is that the show in Ramallah will be done without any local demand. Activists worldwide (and I saw some of them at Radio City Music Hall in NY) generally protest anything having to do with Israel, and my guess is that Leonard sees this as a chance to somehow unite the two peoples.

However, after playing in front of Israelis who have lived with his music for decades (I once heard "Famous Blue Raincoat" played on a public intercity bus in Israel in 1971 -- before his 1973 wartime appearances), he will sing in front of 800 people almost completely virgin to his music.

Even if major discounts are made for the tickets, I can't believe there are more than a handful of people in the territories who even today have ever heard of Leonard Cohen. Don't forget the population there is mainly under 25, which is not even the largest part of Leonard's fan base in Europe. Which means that the seats will be filled with the apparatchiks of the government and their friends, who also are virtually certain to have never heard of him until now.

I just hope that Leonard and the band are not surprised when the usual applause lines ("i was born with the gift of a golden voice" "I tried to leave you") go unnoticed. Also, I think Chelsea Hotel should be excluded from the set. On the other hand, including "The Faith" from Dear Heather might be worth at least a try, since that does include Islam in his religious images. The rest of the Jewish and Christian images will fly right past most of these people.

So while there is no particular reason to regret this concert, no one should be under any illusion that this is a concert that needed to happen.

At least he will be finishing his tour the way he started it in Fredericton last May: in an intimate hall in front of about 800 people.

A friend of mine put it succinctly....."the wisdom of Solomon".

Amen.

newyork wrote:The fact is that the show in Ramallah will be done without any local demand. Activists worldwide (and I saw some of them at Radio City Music Hall in NY) generally protest anything having to do with Israel, and my guess is that Leonard sees this as a chance to somehow unite the two peoples.

However, after playing in front of Israelis who have lived with his music for decades (I once heard "Famous Blue Raincoat" played on a public intercity bus in Israel in 1971 -- before his 1973 wartime appearances), he will sing in front of 800 people almost completely virgin to his music.

Even if major discounts are made for the tickets, I can't believe there are more than a handful of people in the territories who even today have ever heard of Leonard Cohen. Don't forget the population there is mainly under 25, which is not even the largest part of Leonard's fan base in Europe. Which means that the seats will be filled with the apparatchiks of the government and their friends, who also are virtually certain to have never heard of him until now.

I just hope that Leonard and the band are not surprised when the usual applause lines ("i was born with the gift of a golden voice" "I tried to leave you") go unnoticed. Also, I think Chelsea Hotel should be excluded from the set. On the other hand, including "The Faith" from Dear Heather might be worth at least a try, since that does include Islam in his religious images. The rest of the Jewish and Christian images will fly right past most of these people.

So while there is no particular reason to regret this concert, no one should be under any illusion that this is a concert that needed to happen.

At least he will be finishing his tour the way he started it in Fredericton last May: in an intimate hall in front of about 800 people.

Newyork,

as Barenboim once put it - one of the little "tragedies" about the current conflict is how much unnoticed talent, how much unnoticed expertise in music there is in the Arab countries. So first of all - how do you KNOW how a Ramallah audience will react to which songs? But even if the reaction to certain passages is different - is that necessarily a bad thing? An example that comes to mind for me are GDR audiences at concerts and theatre plays who, due to their very different, comparatively difficult circumstances of every-day life, used to be very sensitive towards sub-tones that nowadays tend to go unnoticed. And then - why don't you simply trust the power of Leonard's music as such? He is not going to play to "savages", you know...
Best wishes!

I applaud Leonard for the Ramallah concert. His music is universal, and I'm sure the concert will be unique.
He did a concert in Warsaw in 1985, when Poland was still under communist regime/marshall law, and I remember it as one of the most uplifting experiences of those dark times. I think he didn't know at that time what to expect from the audience in the country 'behind the iron curtain', and yet he gave an excellent concert, was very much in touch with the audience.
I recently watched DVD of this concert for the first time, and looking back I'm struck by the wisdom of his comments !

I'm really not sure if this concert will work... Imagine him singing "Hallelujah" over there, including verses speaking of David and all... not sure if they'll love it. I'm not even sure there is enough crowd in there who appreciate Cohen's work and all...

yaniv297 wrote: I'm not even sure there is enough crowd in there who appreciate Cohen's work and all...

Now there's an interesting thought - how much of a "crowd" do you need to appreciate Leonard's work?? There were only a few hundred people at some of the smaller Maritimes shows last year but they sure appreciated him.

W