42.4 F
New York
Friday, March 29, 2024

Jewish Groups Demonstrate at Met Opera over Controversial “Klinghoffer” Production

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Lincoln Center security officials and police stood behind the demonstrators but did not seek to remove them.
Lincoln Center security officials and police stood behind the demonstrators but did not seek to remove them.
Facing crowds heading towards the Metropolitan Opera on West 62nd Street, two dozen members of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and JCC Watch gathered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City to protest the upcoming performances of “Death of Klinghoffer” which is scheduled to open on Monday, September 22 at the Met. The protestors, who are calling for the cancellation of the program, held signs, distributed flyers to passer bys and sat in two wheelchairs brought to the protest to symbolize the murder of Leon Klinghoffer who was thrown from the Achille Lauro cruise ship after its hijacking by the PLO because he was a Jew.

This was the second in four protests held this week. According to AFSI member, and long time activist, Glenn Richter, the purpose of the protest was to “bring moral clarity to the management of the Metropolitan Opera that anything does not go, that giving a powerful operatic voice to murderous terrorists can not be justified, even in the name of ‘art.’ Richter asked if the Metropolitan Opera would have staged a “similar production glorifying hooded Klansmen lynching an innocent black person.”

According to event organizer, Helen Freedman, the executive director of AFSI the opera “totally revises the history of the 1948 war for Independence fought by Israel against overwhelming odds. It emphasizes the displacement of the Arabs, blaming it on the Jews, when it was actually their own leadership that encouraged them to leave their homes as they were told that they would return.”

Richard Allen, the head of JCC Watch, addressing the crowd stated that “the opera espouses incendiary anti-Semitic lies, and celebrating the ‘humanity of the terrorists’ is totally unacceptable.”

One stanza from the opera from the mouths of the terrorists reads, “America is one big Jew…You are always complaining of your suffering. But wherever poor men are gathered they can find Jews getting fat. They know how to cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, Pollute wherever you have exploited. Defame those you cheated, and break your own law with idolatry.”

Allen suggested that concerned individuals contact management at the Metropolitan Opera, adding, “He must understand the importance of cancelling  ‘The Death Of Klinghoffer’ performances at the Met, especially in light of the onslaught of terrorism going on in the Middle East today..”

The groups are planning to continue protests until the opera is cancelled.

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -