Israel Philharmonic Performance in London Disrupted By 'Palestine' Groupies

There was an interesting occurrence last week at London's Royal Albert Hall.

The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra,led by Zubin Mehta was playing at the annual BBC Proms Concert.

But as the IPO began Webern’s Passacaglia, a dozen people unfurled a banner reading “Free Palestine” and started to chant and sing about “Israeli apartheid” and “violations of international law and human rights”. As the orchestra played over the protests and the 'protesters' were removed by security guards, other groups situated at different points on the audience broke out with anti-Israel chants.As Gil Shaham, an Israeli violinist, prepared to play an encore after the Bruch violin concerto, another group of 'protesters' began shouting slogans and scuffling with members of the audience.

Throughout the entire episode, the IPO and Zubin Mehta maintained their dignity and continued playing.

The chanting and mock singing disrupted the concert to the extent that BBC decided it could not continue with the live broadcast of the concert and pulled the plug because of what the Beeb genteelly called 'audience disturbances'.

The idea, of course is to make Israelis persona non grata in Britain, and that well-organized campaign now extends past governmental figures, academics and businesses to cultural figures like the members of the IPO.

It's also obviously directed at them because they're Jews. No similar protests have ever been directed at musicians from Iran, Turkey, China, Russia, or any other countries accused of human rights violations.And singling out Jews in this way is de facto anti-Semitism, something that has become quite acceptable in many circles in Britain under the mask of 'anti-Zionism'.

On the plus side, the tactic appears to have failed at this particular concert. The Proms audience turned on the 'protesters', chanting “Out, out, out” and applauding as the scum were booted out of the hall.And any time the IPO finished a piece of music, they received extended standing ovations from the crowd, a tribute to the musician's courage and professionalism as much as their musical skills.

The money quote came from Ed Vaizey, the Culture Minister,who was in the Royal Albert Hall for the concert. He tweeted: “Demonstrators seem to have turned [the] entire audience pro-Israel.”

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