Mamma Mia! What Bad Journalism!
Anyone familiar with the British tabloids expects splashy dubiously truthful headlines. But when stories come dressed up in distinguished black-and-white broadsheet with a venerable name like The Times of London, slightly higher standards are expected. Which is why the headline was shocking -- Tel Aviv gets ready to silence Mamma Mia! In response to the controversial proposed British academic boycott of Israel, the Times told the world, those angry Israelis are avoiding everything British -- including musical theater. That would be very disturbing - if it were true. By Allison Kaplan Sommer, PJM Tel Aviv Editor
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As a close observer of the Israeli political and cultural scene as reported by the Hebrew press, none of the statements contained in the Times report sounded even vaguely correct to me.
My gut reaction was backed up by Ynet News, which helpfully dissected the story. To say they found inaccuracies would be an understatement.
“The Abba musical Mamma Mia! could be the first casualty of a growing Israeli backlash against a proposed British academic boycott of Israeli universities.
The British production, due to open in Tel Aviv in a few weeks, has been jeopardised by threats from local theatre companies who refuse to stage it in retaliation over threats from the University and College Union to boycott Israel for occupying Palestinian land.”
— First of all, the production is not “due to open in Tel Aviv in a few weeks.” It’s already here. The production’s participants landed in Israel Monday morning, ready to perform their 24-show tour at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv this week. The production playing at the sports stadium, where many other large-scale musicals are staged, because of its size and technical requirements.
NOT because of any “retaliatory boycott” by theaters refusing to host the show.
The show’s producer, Mark Lieberberg told Ynet, in response to the London Times’ report, “We are here, and that’s a fact. No Israeli theatre or organization told us anything about a boycott, this is bullshit. The truth should be told. This whole matter is part of the British tabloid business that has unfortunately reached the Times as well.”
The show, by the way, is almost sold out. The only reason it hasn’t been sold out completely is its hefty ticket price - between $45 and $95.
The article goes on to quote Knesset member Otniel Schneller, as being behind the boycott. He told Ynet that he never approached the production, made efforts to prevent it from coming to Israel, or organized any form of boycott.
Schneller has, indeed, proposed a bill which if adopted, gasps the Times “would require British imports to be labelled clearly, making it easier for shoppers to shun the goods.”
But the Times goes on to claim, “political observers say that there is growing public support for the bill.”
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2 Comments
kourosh:British shouldn’t be that worry if a country with principles avoid charlatanism or BBCism. Instead, they are now frequent provider of lies and manipulations on NPR. It takes a while for Americans to mature as Israelis are and to be able to distinguish lies (BBC style) from the truthful news. Until BBC take over the complete news making and opinion shaping of NPR and PeeBS.
As an example: Today in BBC Persian there was a piece of news about a town in IL passing a law to prevent certain style of cloths in government and public places. Then BBC said, however the same cloths can be found in Iran. Ignoring the torture and abuse of young Iranian by Khomeinists that is going on these days in Iran with these kinds of dirty tricks. Then don’t be surprise if more young people in Iran are arrested and tortured, Khomeinists quoting BBC that there is more freedom in Khomeinie Town than small town USA.
Jun 14, 2007 - 1:36 pm progressoverpeace:Why would an Israeli boycott of things British be “disturbing”? For the amount of anti-semitism that comes out of Britain, and the horrendous level of anti-Israeli tripe, Israelis should boycott everything British.
Hell, just the obnoxious British attempt to hold back essential spare parts for Israeli weapons systems was more than enough to fairly establish a boycott of the Brits.
I do not understand why you believe that such a boycott of British goods by Israelis would be “disturbing”. Frankly, I find it disturbing that Israelis are not boycotting the Brits, who are doing everything in their power to ensure the demise of Israel and the death of millions.
Jun 17, 2007 - 4:16 pm