Just in: Dutch run scared of Jerusalem Quartet
NewsThe Concertgebouw in Amsterdam has called off two concerts this week by the Israeli string quartet ‘due to announced demonstrations, and recent developments surrounding protests in Amsterdam.’
The hall said it has ‘a duty to guarantee the safety of our employees, visitors and musicians.’
The concerts were due to take place on Thursday and Saturday.
There has been an instant response from the Dutch Jewish community: ‘It is with total disbelief that the Central Jewish Consultation has learned that the Concertgebouw has decided to cancel the concert from the Jerusalem Quartet that was planned in the Concertgebouw for May 16 and 18. Your actions have given new meaning to the word ‘cancel culture.’
The quartet’s cellist Kyril Zlotnikov calls the Concertgebouw’s decision ‘Capitulation to bullying and terrorism.’
Last Thursday, the Jerusalem Quartet gave a sold-out concert without incident at London’s Wigmore Hall.
Why are the Dutch so timid?
UPDATE: Musicians rally in ssupport of banned quartet
Cowards! Bowing to a bunch of riot makers! Disgusting!
I could not agree more. A great loss to Amsterdam. One of the world’s great quartets is snubbed but cowardice!
Why is it disgusting? Israel has become a rogue state, responsible for heinous war crimes. A quartet that names itself after one of its cities will ultimately bear the consequences.
Oh really? The Berlin Philharmonic is still called that!
Hey Sam, get a life and learn some facts whilst you are at it.
Last night they gave a stunning, sold out performance at the Konzerthaus Vienna.
Yes, Concertgebouw have given in to the anti-semites and bullies. Cowardly.
Shame on the Concertgebouw,
Their loss!
Please note that the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest and the Koninklijk Concertgebouw are two different and separated organisations, each with their own judicial structure and management.
But one could understand the confusion around the world…
The fascists are working hard to make the world judenfrei.
We will stop them.
Well, fascists have nothing to do with this cancellation. Blame rather islamists and misguided lefties.
Islamofascism, to be exact – a disgusting, degenerate evil – and the fifth columnist perverts, so-far-left-they’re-far-right, who refuse to remove their tongues from the Islamist boot.
Even this particular topic aside, surely one can’t let the mob rule? Hard to imagine this scenario being allowed in any other situation. Something tells me, the riot explanation is more of an excuse to just cancel the concert.
I sincerely hope they got their full fees!
Agree this is absolutely disgusting behavior.
Why are the Dutch so timid? Because tensions are running very high in Amsterdam at the moment, and earlier in the week protesters caused around €1.5 million in damage to the University when they stormed various buildings. The Jerusalem Quartet performed at the String Quartet Bienniale back in January and there were also protests then, but nothing compared to what is happening at the moment. There has been increasing aggression on the part of the protesters and there is no sign of that dying down. It’s incredibly frustrating that this concert has been cancelled, I would love to have attended. My sympathies to the musicians.
The aggression is willfully tolerated. Every penny of this damage should be charged to the protesters. I mean, what is this world we are living in? Can we just go destroying things? Surely there is a clear definition of crime, and inflicting 1.5mil damage is it? If the Dutch police cannot manage the criminals rioting, they should ask for help, not appease them by succumbing to their demands.
It has to be added that the overall majority of the protesters (quite a big number of whom were dressed in the black-and-white palestinian headgear) were students of the University of Amsterdam. It is not known whether also students from the other university, Vrije Universiteit, were in the mix – there was no information about that, it seemed to be a UvA affair.
The ignorance and stupidity of these youngsters is stunning. It seems that reading and knowledge is not high on their priority list.
That the Concertgebouw cancelled the concert of the Jerusalem Quartet is a scandal. The authorities want to avoid ‘problems’ at any cost.
Also has to be mentioned that ‘protesting’ is, in Amsterdam, an old tradition; virtue signalling and having fun through vandalism have always been part of the local culture. There is a constant hunger for reasons to go into the streets and to show how much certain groups feel committed to the ills of the world and spend some days in uplifting uproar.
The Dutch, sadly, are well-known for not saving their Jewish citizens during WWII.
In contrary, it was a pleasant chance to settle old scores. Betraying Jews was popular during WW II.
Uh, wasn’t that seventy-some years ago? I’m guessing most of the people alive then are no longer with us.
The US Civil War was in the 1860s. Confederate flags still fly all over the South.
This is exactly how the Dutch behaved in World War 2 . No big surprise here ..
This is disgraceful. The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam should be ashamed. They are cowards!
Great, culture wars in Slipped Disc. Just what I come to read. /s
You think the spectacle of the Islamist vermin getting Jews’ concerts cancelled is “culture wars”?
You wouldn’t complain at all if the shoe were on the other foot, and some (theoretical) quartet from Gaza were cancelled, would you?
Nobody is interested in fascist apologists. Fuck off.
Barenboim’s Divan Orchestra has a mix of Israeli and Palestine players and there is no difference in talents and abilities between them.
The closest we can come to a real high profile ensemble that includes Palestinians is the West East Divan Orchestra. Any presenter who would cancel them under similar circumstances would face a colossal outcry, without any doubt.
It wouldn’t be cancelled. When Arabs perform music (or make huge demonstrations that take over European cities), Jews don’t riot. So your hypothetical is absurd.
I would complain about any cancellations after somebody was invited, no matter who. This is about music, not politics.
I too was canceled in a discussion at the University of Amsterdam, a discussion about science, not politics. But my “stance on the war” was apparently wrong.
https://bit.ly/4dGPmYS
Having understanding and sympathy for Israel is apparantly sufficient reason to cancel a discussion about evolution.
You mean the Islamist hellhole where women are prevented from riding bicycles, gay men are burned alive in the street, and the theocratic fascists in power regularly forbid music as a blasphemous sin?
And this in the land of Anne Frank.
As we know, she was betrayed by locals, without any reason.
Oh come on! Really!!
A cowardly and deeply wrong decision by the Concertgebouw – this is how racism wins.
Despicable. Ironically, the en
Despicable. Ironically, the Western world, by capitulating time and again to threats and intimidation, and turning a blind eye, at best, to countless instances of antisemitism, has provided the best justification possible for Zionism and its absolute necessity. It’s clear that nations that harbor Jews, including the US, have at best tolerated their presence, and their welcome in said nations is conditional and contingent. The next time those of you who are fond of accusing Jews of having dual citizenship and dual loyalties, do remember what is taken place all over the world and why might that be. As Mahler said, “I am thrice homeless: as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world.”
The same “people”, of course, scream their vicious little heads off at the mildest suggestion that Western Muslims have dual loyalties. Even though that is, you know, The Truth.
Such a glorious Dutch heritage . . .
[Mengelburg] worshipped Mussolini and collected picture postcards of Adolf Hitler. He was rude about Jews and, when the Germans invaded his country, gave an interview to the racialist Völkischer Beobachter, announcing his joy at the occupation: “We stayed up all night, ordered champagne and celebrated that great hour. It was truly a great hour . . . Europe awaits a new future.”
I agree this seems a bit cowardly and risk-averse of the Concertgebouw. But here’s a suggestion: Why doesn’t a Jewish organization or promoter in Amsterdam present them instead? Surely they have the organizational wherewithal to arrange a concert on short notice, find a venue, organize security, etc?
80% percent of Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. A large number of who remained emmigrated to Israel.
There simply aren’t that many Jews left.
A bit of context: The Concertgebouw is located right on the Museumplein; the principal spot for protests. I was in the area last week, before the student riots, and tensions were running high with lots of police around, fireworks set off only meters away from the C’bouw and Rijksmuseum. The damage caused to the university in the last few days is unbelievable, I can see how rioters in the Concertgebouw would be a disaster. Emotions in the city need to cool down otherwise it’s a matter of time before something goes horribly wrong and people will get hurt.
Ironically, two of the members are from Ukraine, and one from Belarus. Only one actual ex-Israeli in the group. This is all because they’re named for a city in Israel?
By the same token, has anybody protested the St. Petersburg string quartet (based in the U.S.)?
Ex-Israeli?? Quatsch! Abgesehen davon: das wäre unbedeutend
Nobody here knows the reasons behind why the hall cancelled the concert. Just lots of the back and forth accusations that have no basis in fact.
I don’t know much about the circumstances behind the cancellation of the concerts but it might be worth thinking about the fact that many many people across the world are feeling very upset and angry about the actions of the Israeli state who have committed countless war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and are charged with genocide. 35000 Palestinians killed and 5% of the Palestinian population are dead or injured.
Have you heard what happened on October 7th? Or you are one of those million ignorants?
That is a pure example of surrendering to terrorism.