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Friday Night Lights: Human rights activists disrupt ballet performance at Flynn Theater

by: Christian Avard

Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 08:45:39 AM EST

UPDATE: YouTube already pulled the video down. Not to worry, it will go back up.

UPDATE 2: It's fixed!

I want to give a shout out to those who participated in a successful night of activism. Several activists leafleted 249 people attending last night's Israeli Ballet performance at the Flynn Theater.

The leaflet asked "Would you like some information about Don Quixote and the Israel Ballet?" -- which was an accurate presentation of last night's performance. "Israel's 'Golden Helmet of Mambrino' -- which makes one invisible, thus capable of all actions -- is slowly turning into Don Quixote's version of it -- a upside-down shaving bowl plopped on the head -- incapable of nothing but making its wearer more obvious and actionable to the world. Brand Israel will continue to call forth increasing protests as audiences realize they are being used," said author and activist Marc Estrin.

The headline said "A Modern Don Quixote." Estrin said almost all ballet-goers accepted it, even those glancing at the opening before continuing into the theater. There are no trash cans inside the actual theater, so he assumes most flyers made it to people's seats for reading before the show began. Estrin said one elderly man "came all the way out again to present us with a crumpled up ball with instructions to 'shove this up your ass,' but the other 249 copies all made it in.

The other highlight was when one Israeli and three Vermonters unfurled a banner during the performance. Check out the ~~YouTube~~ Vimeo below the fold!

Christian Avard :: Friday Night Lights: Human rights activists disrupt ballet performance at Flynn Theater

Israel ballet interrupted in Burlington, Vt. - No tutu is big enough to cover Israel's War Crimes from samayfield on Vimeo.

Here is the text of the leaflet given out at last night's performance. Kudos again to everyone involved in the organizing efforts.

A MODERN DON QUIXOTE
Whether conscious or not, there is a deep irony in the choice of Don Quixote as a touring piece for the Israel Ballet.
For the company here presents a story of enchantment and self-enchantment, delusion and self-delusion, a fairytale of madness and delusory nobility, the story of a dreamer driven mad by ancient books, his mental state now lucid, now insane.
Tonight you will meet The Knight of Sorrowful Countenance, surrounded by enemies and magicians, battling the world of evil. He is cruelly used, physically and mentally, beaten and scorned by the powers around him. Normally grave and self-controlled, he can be goaded into mad fits of rage, unable to distinguish between his fantasies and the world's realities.
By the end of the book, our hero's soul is taunted by doubt, by the suspicion that his quest to reestablish the past through arms and armor may be an illusion. "I find myself, Niece," he says, "at the point of death, and I would die in such a way as not to leave the impression of a life so bad that I shall be remembered as a madman: for even though I have been one, I do not wish to confirm it on my deathbed."
There are lessons here for all of us.
You art-lovers, people of conscience, members of the international community of intellectuals, have historically stood with the ancient -- perhaps quixotic -- moral responsibility to fight injustice -- as you did, for instance, in helping abolish wage slavery among grape-pickers in California, or apartheid in South Africa -- through various forms of boycott.
Given that the UN has many times condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal, and that six decades of diplomacy have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its oppression of the people of Palestine, we ask you in the future to support a general boycott of Israeli goods and cultural offerings -- an international non-violent effort to impel the Israeli government to end its occupation of Arab lands, to end the house demolitions, dismantle the walls, recognize the claims of Arab citizens of Israel to full equality, and to promote the globally recognized rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
As it is not anti-American to call for ending our own wars, it is not antisemitic to call on the Israeli government to change its policies in the name of freedom and justice.
Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel vtjp.org

For anyone who needs a brush up on Israel-Palestine click here.

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Friday Night Lights: Human rights activists disrupt ballet performance at Flynn Theater | 3 comments

Wow... (0.00 / 0)

That took some real chutzpah. Kudos!

http://www.asrblog.com

by: carbonpenguin @ Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 09:20:47 AM CST

by: you @ soon

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Targeting artists (4.00 / 3)

Not my favorite.

Nullius perfectus est

by: odum @ Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 11:46:11 AM CST

by: you @ soon

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Odum, let me explain... (0.00 / 0)

... because this issue means too damn much to me : )

#1. The Israeli Ballet receives around $1 million annually from the Israeli government and is being advertised as a valued cultural representative of the state by the Israeli Consulate in New York. The dance group also boasts holding "special performances" for Israeli soldiers. That's concering.

#2. According to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions activists who took part in the protest (and this is an important in terms of context):

"The action in Burlington takes place as part of a larger call to boycott Israeli Cultural and Academic institutions that do not openly denounce Israeli crimes against Palestinians and dissociate themselves from Israeli policy. The boycott call has its roots in Palestinian civil society, which in 2004, led by the newly formed Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), called on colleagues in the international community 'to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until Israel withdraws from all the lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; removes all its colonies in those lands; agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugees rights; and dismantles its system of apartheid.'"

As much as you don't like the fact that the arts/artists are the focus of attention, I think this is justified.

#3. These aren't just your run of the mills activists with no connection to the Israeli oppression of Palestine. The PACBI wrote the following.

Former Israeli soldier and human rights activist Yonatan Shapira, who took part in the action said, "The Israel Ballet comes to the U.S. during a concerted effort by the Israeli government to use arts and culture to whitewash Israeli war crimes and to conceal facts about its occupation and racial discrimination against the Palestinian people. Rather than distancing itself from the Israeli government, the ballet has proudly embraced its ties with the state."

A former IDF solider taking part in something where he could be labeled as a "self-hating Jew" is telling. IMO, that's not being reckless and petty. I think that's pretty damn brave.

#4. As with any activist action, there are always better ways to demonstrate and protest without being disruptive. I think those who unfurled the banner could have done it on the side of the stage during the performance. I think it could have gotten the same message across and not be as bothersome.

Last year, Jim Douglas and Pat Leahy did a presentation at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro on how to acquire stimulus money. Four Brattleboro activists (one of them a petulant and ethically-challenged shithead) stood on the Latchis Theater stage with a "Veto nuclear Jim in 2010" sign that annoyed those in the audience. Senator Leahy I recall saying "Nobody will defend the First Amendment more than I do, but understand why we're here. Many of you have issues. Please don't interrupt the people who are here for the stimulus package" to a loud applause. Quite honestly, it was a dumb act that didn't win anyone over. But I digress...

Although I disapproved of the Latchis Theater action and while I think the Flynn Theater action could have been better and more tactfully executed, there is an element of symbolism and sentiment that's justified. I remember The Commons wrote an editorial on the VY protest and raised this important point that relates to what happened at the Flynn.

However much sensitivity the protesters lacked in this display, our elected officials have collectively demonstrated an equal and opposite lack of sensitivity to some of the causes that inspired such passion on the part of the four people who decided to get arrested....

Think of all the military aid that the US gave to Israel to oppress Palestinians. What happened in Gaza last year was repulsive. The majority of deaths during Operation Cast Lead were children. The US turned a blind eye on what happened, prevented the Goldstone Report from gaining any traction at the United Nations, and Congress passes biased resolutions supporting Israel during their own military attacks and others that condemn human rights reports that confirm the human rights abuses conducted by the Israeli military. Would you like me to send you pictures of what happened? If you saw what I saw, you'd be shocked and disgusted to high hell.

Here's what The Commons editorial also said that may explain why actions in Brattleboro and Burlington unfolded the way they did.

When citizens see evidence that their legitimate concerns are brushed aside, they get frustrated, and that frustration can manifest itself in ways that are less than genteel and less than businesslike.
However inconvenient, however lacking in tact and credibility the delivery, that frustration should have been one message our elected officials took with them when they returned to Montpelier and Washington.

I think that applies with the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the system of apartheid they implement to justify its existence. Sorry to say, but I think the arts is justified. It just could be more tactfully done. I'll agree with you on that one : ) I hope that clarifies some things.

by: Christian Avard @ Sun Feb 21, 2010 at 16:34:13 PM CST

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