London college cancels ‘Palestine resistance’ concert

London college cancels ‘Palestine resistance’ concert

News

norman lebrecht

November 20, 2024

Morley College, an adult education institute that once gave employment to German-Jewish refugees, has stepped in to ban a concert of pro-Palestine new music with such titles as ‘Salute to the Resistance’ and ‘Blood United Us’.

The college principal Andrew Gower ruled that the event, titled ‘The World Stands With Palestine: Compositions for the Palestinian struggle’, was politically one-sided.

The event was planned by the Cornelius Cardew Concert Trust.

Participating composers included Jonathan Case, Michael Chant, Alison Doubleday, Elif Karlidag, Lesley Larkum, Hugh Shrapnel and Dave Smith.

Morley’s past directors of music include Gustav Holst and Michael Tippett.

Comments

  • Gerry Feinsteen says:

    It’s shocking how far the Left has been brainwashed by Hamas propaganda. At no time before October 7, 2023 would 99.9% of the Left have dared to visit ‘Gaza’ or any other area ruled by Hamas lest they risk being kidnapped, stabbed, or, at the least, robbed.

    The war is between Israel and Hamas. Hamas, as with all middle Eastern terrorist (Islamist in particular) organizations, uses its own people as shields. Time and time again we read from mainstream media that those so-called journalists killed in Gaza were in fact members of Hamas. I believe the boy pianist who chose to play an encore in their memory is nothing more than a terrorist sympathizer himself.

    I wish the Left leaning faction of LGBTQIAA+ community would stage protests in countries surrounding Israel and through the Middle East. Of course, they could stage a protest inside Israel towards Israel with very few obstacles—try dressing in drag and supporting Palestinian trans rights on the streets of Iraq or Syria or Qatar—a wise person would remind them that a one-way flight ticket is all they would need.

    I applaud the IDF and Mossad. They have been strategic and mostly considerate. It breaks every Israeli’s heart to see innocent people killed or injured on either side—Hamas fighters are the baby rapers, the women mutilators, and the Left’s celebrated martyrs—no surprise the Far Left love Hamas, whose fighters have no issue with abortions up to any age.

    Music should bring us together. We don’t need an Osama bin Laden Overture or an Intifada Symphony, and certainly no Hymn of Hamas’ Babykillers.

    • Paul Brownsey says:

      “Hamas, as with all middle Eastern terrorist (Islamist in particular) organizations, uses its own people as shields.”

      Does that make it OK to kill them?

      And how would you define “its own people”?

      • Gerry Feinsteen says:

        Hamas has been the de facto governing body of Gaza since 2007, when it ousted the Palestinian Authority.

        When the enemy is willing to strap bombs onto children to kill more innocent people, the enemy does not deserve your humanity, Mr Brownsey. If you want to shed tears over shrapnel-covered subway suicide bombers, you best keep such emotions to yourself.

        For the Left, it is okay to kill babies in the womb for any reason, but not okay to kill a terrorist?

        • John Borstlap says:

          And let’s not forget that ca. 70% of the people in Gaza have chosen Hamas as their leaders, and still a majority appears to support them. They are all united in a very morbid cult of death and destruction, and in the constitution of Hamas it is clearly stated that their aim is the total destruction of Israel – it is their ‘raison d’être’. These Arabs rejected all proposals for peace and co-existence, they began wars all the time, and when they loose they complain and the others are the bad guys.

          Maybe it’s because of the 70 virgins promised by the so-called theologicans, and since almost all of the perpetrators are men, this may be some sort of biological explanation.

          • Paul Brownsey says:

            I’m not sure the voters of a country can be held responsible for all that a government does. That’s simplistic.

        • Paul Brownsey says:

          “When the enemy is willing to strap bombs onto children to kill more innocent people, the enemy does not deserve your humanity, Mr Brownsey.”

          So that makes it OK to kill other people in Gaza who didn’t strap bombs onto children?

          “If you want to shed tears over shrapnel-covered subway suicide bombers, you best keep such emotions to yourself.”

          At no point have I shown any sign of shedding such tears.

          Do you mean that everyone killed by Israeli forces in Gaza is a shrapnel-covered subway suicide bomber?

    • Anthony Sayer says:

      Bravo, Gerry.

    • Julius Bannister says:

      Gerry, it’s not only the far left — remember the far right also seem to hate the Jews to a man

  • La belle plus voix says:

    Hugh Shrapnel? Either you could not make this up, or they chose him because of his name.

  • L. says:

    Thank God we stand with Israel.

  • Ebenezer says:

    It is a moral necessity to be “politically one-sided”, whilst Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people is taking place

    • V.Lind says:

      It has not been a problem to be “politically one-sided” in the Russia-Ukraine war. Or in most wars. Moral ambiguity in war started, in a small way, with Korea and rose with Vietnam — when people did NOT see that their own government was serving a good cause.

      Some in Israel, and among those who have traditionally supported Israel, are opposed to the way in which retaliation for October 7 is being prosecuted. I balk at the use of the word “genocide” — though statements by Netanyahu over the years have not helped, as he has consistently resisted any sense of admitting Palestinians to full freedom. His dismissal of senior people who question him is distressingly dictator-like.

      • Yuri K says:

        You can’t serve a “good case” by carpet-bombing civilian population and burning villages with napalm. If you do this, you are the bad guys.

    • Mike Cohen says:

      Having waded my way through drivel and downright lies I found it refreshing to read your comment.

  • Anthony Sayer says:

    Good. Time to take a leaf out of the loony left’s playbook and cancel those moronic composers, too.

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  • Someone says:

    Gustav Holst would turn in his grave if he knew that his alma mater salutes bloodthirsty jihadists.

  • Dargomyzhsky says:

    If this were an event organised by the far right its cancellation would lead to wailing about ‘freedom of speech’. Not that it sounds unmissable.

    • Save the MET says:

      It, like this event would also be anti-Jewish. Jews sadly have been a football for thousands of years by both the rancid ridiculous right and the looney limpid left. The truth is, the Palestinians who have spread throughout the region have been given ample opportunity to live in peace with their neighbor, whose not going away and they choose to embrace Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, the Triad of H’s in terrorism. The one sane player that has a large Palestinian population is Jordan who has a monarch who has to run his country in such a way that terrorism is not allowed to bubble up from the sewers.

  • Robert says:

    Huge Shrapnel would be a good name for a Metal band.

    Do they still make those?

  • Jewelyard says:

    Good on them. And shame on the bigots who planned to participate in this concert celebrating Jew hatred.

  • Good says:

    Good. Garbage non-music from clueless, antisemitic posers. Good riddance.

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  • JB says:

    So much for free speech in England, which becomes more stalinist with every day Starmer is in charge

    • Save the MET says:

      The concert would not have raised its’ ugly head under the Tories. You think they support this stuff? Bad ideas are bad ideas and this one was rotten to the core from the start.

    • Saxon Broken says:

      Err…this is bizarre. The people who want to organise the concert are free to do so. And to broadcast their views at their concert. However, the organisation who run the hall have said they don’t want to have the concert in their building.

      This is perfectly reasonable: I don’t want people of certain views coming to my home and telling me about their views either.

  • Michael says:

    Israel needs a enema…They have a right to defend themselves diplomatically…not genocide…I am a disappointed American…I attend the CSO…MP in Vietnam…

    • Anthony Sayer says:

      What use is diplomacy when your enemy is deaf and illiterate? Israel is doing the only thing it can to defend itself.

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