[NYTr] Conn. School Cancels Palestinian Folklore Troupe

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[An example of the insane level of pro-Israeli political correctness
and walking-on-eggs sensitivity prevalent in the US. The AP story
says that *a* complaint (meaning one?) was all it took, and the
complaint said the troupe's performance was "offensive to Jews and
Israel" (whose interests are automatically assumed be the same). -NYTr]

sent by mart - Nov 12, 2007

Palestinian Folklore Dancing Banned in US School as being
"Offensive  to Jews"!

[ Hmm?? I guess to the Zionists - both  the actual Jewish ones and the
so-called   'Christian' ones too,  the mere sight of a  Palestinian is
"Offensive" and the fact  that they are allowed to breath air is
considered to be "Anti-Semitic"!  - mart ]

===========================

AP via The Hartford Courant - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.courant.com
http://tinyurl.com/3dcea5 

Palestinian dance troupe performances in Old Saybrook canceled

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. - Officials in  Old Saybrook have canceled
performances  by a Palestinian dance troupe after getting  a complaint
that it is offensive to Jews and Israel.

The decision involves planned performances  at the town's elementary
and middle schools  by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe.

Town resident Ginger Horton says she felt  compelled to complain to
school officials  after her two grandchildren told her they  were
offended by the troupe's performance  at the high school Monday.

Horton says the grandchildren told her the  high school performance
depicted Israeli  soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio  says he canceled further
performances after learning several parents questioned  whether it was
appropriate for their  children.

-----------

[See also 'Sabbah's Blog' for more  on this article -  mart ]

Sabbah's Blog - Nov 11, 2007

http://sabbah.biz/mt/

Palestinian Folklore Dancing  Banned  in a US School as  being
"Offensive to Jews"!

by Haitham

Now this is the most disgusting piece  of news I've read today:

"OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. - Officials in Old  Saybrook have canceled
performances  by a Palestinian dance troupe after getting  a complaint
that it is offensive to Jews and  Israel.

The decision involves planned performances  at the town's elementary
and middle schools  by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe.

Town resident Ginger Horton says she felt  compelled to complain to
school officials  after her two grandchildren told her they  were
offended by the troupe's performance  at the high school Monday."

Here is the yucky part:

"Horton says the grandchildren told  her the high school performance
depicted Israeli soldiers beating and  torturing Palestinians. School
Superintendent Joseph Onofrio says  he canceled further performances
after  learning several parents questioned  whether it was appropriate
for their  children"

Keep in mind the following:

1. Who is offended? American Jews, not Israelis. or are they?

2. What they are offended by? "Depicted  Israeli soldiers beating and
torturing  Palestinians". What? Offended because the victim depicted
the aggressor? Holy God!

More details from the same news source:

"The performance by Al-Ghad Folklore  Dancing Troupe of Beit Sahour was
meant  to be cultural and not overtly political, said  the Rev. David
W. Good, senior minister of  the First Congregational Church of Old
Lyme, where the troupe performed this past  weekend. But resident
Ginger Horton said  she felt compelled to complain to school  officials
after her two grandchildren told  her they were offended by the
troupe's  performance at the high school Monday.

"[My] grandchildren came home very frightened," Horton said Thursday."

Good, who saw the performance at the school, disagreed.

"I saw nothing there that was anti-Jewish,"  Good said. "It was a
cultural program. Anything of this nature, given the realities  of
where they live, the political realities are a short distance away."

The key words here are "The performance .  meant to be cultural and not
overtly  political". This is politically and culturally  wrong
statement. It only shows that Mr.  Good doesn't know that the
resistance of  the Israeli occupation is (inevitably) part  of the
Palestinian culture.

It is nothing but a Zionist tactic to tag  everything that uncovers
their crimes as anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic.

Reading on...

"Good said many of the dances  performed were simply traditional, but
he acknowledged one was particularly  upsetting to a male student in
the  audience. That more modern dance  'certainly expressed the
frustration of  detention by Israeli soldiers' and dealt  with curfews,
checkpoints and the  realities of detention, Good said.

The male student became angry and  said Palestinians 'do not want
peace  even though they talk about peace in  their dances,' Good said.
At the end  of the performance, the student  pursued the performers, he
said.

'He was angrily shaking a finger in the  face of a Palestinian girl,'
Good said.  'I asked him to stop.' Horton said it was  inappropriate
for the public school  system to host what she called a  hateful,
politically charged event."

Now who is hateful? The Palestinian  dancers - or those who attacked
them  and gave a finger to a Palestinian girl?  Yet, the dancers
(victims) were punished, not the attacker(s). as usual practice  by the
ignorant American public (a  minority of Americans knows and support
the truth, that is the Palestinians rights and  fight against the
Israeli occupation. To those, a salute).

Reading on...

"My concern was that it would be  stopped, and we stopped it," said
Horton, who also contacted the Jewish  Federation Association of
Connecticut.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio,  who did not attend the high
school  performance, said a male Jewish student  became "emotionally
charged and upset" by the visitors' depiction of Jews."

So, they were afraid of the Jewish  Federation Association of
Connecticut  and called the show off. But again (and  sorry for the
repetition), who said that  they depicted Jews? They depict the
Israeli aggression and some of its behaviors (torture, checkpoints,
etc.).

What the hell all this have to do with  Jews?

Reading on...

"Bob Fishman, executive director of  the Jewish Federation Association
of  Connecticut, said Old Saybrook public schools should not host
groups with  a perceived political agenda. He lauded upset local
students and family members who 'stepped up.' 'It was a very
disturbing  report [Horton] got from her grandchildren,'  Fishman said.
'I advised her that it's not  appropriate for a sponsor to say it's'
cultural when it's primarily political.'"

Fishman said his organization plans  to discuss the performances with
state  legislators and top state education  officials.

" 'These are public schools, taxpayer  dollars,'  Fishman said."

" 'They were very careful" not to make a  political statement;, Good
said of the  troupe. "They were asked to share their  dance, and share
their story living in the  occupied territory. They did so through
music."

Let's judge by the American Jews (or  should I say, Zionist) actions.

Are we to assume that the "upset male  Jewish student", Mr. Fishman,
the Jewish  Federation Association of Connecticut  and Mrs. Horten's
positions are  non-political?

Mrs. Horton said her "grandchildren  came home very frightened," yet it
was  the Jewish protesters who played the  "Heavies" in this episode,
not the  dancers.

It was the Zionist perspective that denied  free speech. The
Palestinian dancers were  expressing the Israel curfews, checkpoints,
torture and the realities of detention  because they are as much a part
of  Palestinian life and cultural experience as  the "Wailing Wall" and
the Holocaust are  to Jews.

Canceling the show is awful and everything  that followed is a result
of acquiescence to  censorship and intimidation by a vocal  minority.
Art and dance act as commentary  on the human condition with all its
glories,  tragedies and blemishes, no matter the  source. Caving in to
calls for censorship, in  a supposedly 'free society', can be a
slippery  slope indeed. Who gets to be the arbiter of  what we all get
to see? Should it be an  "aggravated Jewish student"? Should it be  a
pathetic bureaucrat fearful of offending  some vocal minority? Who will
you  surrender your intellect to?

---------------------------------

Photo: "el Funoun Palestinian Folk  dance troupe"
http://tinyurl.com/2d96vs 

More Palestinian Folklore Dance photos aqnd information here: 'el
Funoun  Palestinian Folklore Dance Dance'  website.
http://www.el-funoun.org