The music festival Rototom Sunsplash apologized today for disinviting the American Jewish singer Matisyahu from performing. The apology was…not so good.
come for the blue skies, stay for the anti-semitism!
Backstory: Under pressure from the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel) movement, the festival had demanded that Matisyahu release a statement endorsing a Palestinian state. Only then would he be allowed to perform. Matisyahu refused, and posted on his Facebook page:
The festival organizers contacted me because they were getting pressure from the BDS movement. They wanted me to write a letter, or make a video, stating my positions on Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to pacify the BDS people. I support peace and compassion for all people. My music speaks for itself, and I do not insert politics into my music. Music has the power to transcend the intellect, ideas, and politics, and it can unite people in the process. The festival kept insisting that I clarify my personal views; which felt like clear pressure to agree with the BDS political agenda. Honestly it was appalling and offensive, that as the one publicly Jewish-American artist scheduled for the festival they were trying to coerce me into political statements. Were any of the other artists scheduled to perform asked to make political statements in order to perform? No artist deserves to be put in such a situation simply to perform his or her art. Regardless of race, creed, country, cultural background, etc, my goal is to play music for all people. As musicians that is what we seek. – Blessed Love, Matis
After removing the singer from the lineup, Rototom issued a statement, but not an apology: “We did not say no to Matisyahu because he has Hebrew roots or as a Zionist, but we just simply considered inappropriate organising something that would certainly generate a conflict.”
Ah yes, the old blame-the-victim game! By this logic, gay people should not be allowed to get married, since this generates conflict among haters of gay people. Schools should never have been desegregated, since that little Ruby Bridges distressed racists to no end. Women should not be legally entitled to equal pay for equal work, because this makes John Boehner turn even more orange in dismay.
Matisyahu used to look like this, which surely has nothing to do with BDS targeting him, and also he probably used Christian children’s blood to make matzoh.
Today, Rototom tried again. It issued a statement on its web site, along with an English version on its Facebook page. Let’s take it point by point.
1. Rototom Sunsplash rejects anti-Semitism and any form of discrimination towards the Jewish community; we respect both their culture [and] religious beliefs and we sincerely apologize for what has occurred, thereby rectifying point 4* in the previous release regarding this controversy.
[Point 4 was this: “Rototom Sunsplash, after having repeatedly sought dialogue given the unavailability of the artist for comment, in order to clearly declare himself regarding the war and in particular the right of the Palestinian people to have their own State, has decided to cancel the performance of Matisyahu scheduled for August 22.”]
We open with a bunch of words that are so clearly butt-cover-y legalese as to seem utterly insincere. This has the approximate level of heartfelt-ness as Dennis the Menace standing at Mr. Wilson’s door, repeatedly stubbing the rubber toe of his sneaker on the wooden slats while apologizing to Mr. Wilson for breaking his window with a baseball as Dennis’s mother glares at him from the porch.
Oh, Rototom!
We do not approve of discrimination (even though we just practiced it). We like Jews. We are eating a bagel right now. We are hereby officially negating that other thing so forget we said that other thing so now we are off the hook if you were thinking of suing us or taking away our funding or sponsorships or anything like that.
Happy yoginis at Rototom, none of whom are practicing cultural appropriation in their hair choices.
2. Rototom Sunsplash would like to publicly apologize to Matisyahu for having cancelled his concert and invite him to perform at the festival next Saturday 22 August, as was initially programmed in the lineup.
All is forgiven, Matisyahu! We say this publicly even though you put us in this position! Publicly! (No word on whether anything was said privately. Or, you know, sincerely.)
3. Rototom Sunplash admits that it made a mistake, due to the boycott and the campaign of pressure, coercion and threats employed by the BDS País Valencià because it was perceived that the normal functioning of the festival could be threatened. All of which prevented the organization from reasoning clearly as to how to deal with the situation properly.
It’s not our fault! The BDS people made us! They threatened us! We had to resort to passive voice (“it was perceived”), that’s how scary and confusing it was! We became flummoxed and disoriented, as if we had a head injury, and had forgotten the way civilized human beings behave! That old Bob Marley quote, “If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already” is not relevant!
4. After 22 years of history, Rototom Sunsplash reaffirms its commitment to a Culture of Peace and respect between cultures, including the freedom of belief as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution.
Again, please note our legal talky-talk. Which has nothing to do with the Spanish Foreign Ministry (which is, incidentally, very sorry for the expulsion of all of Spain’s Jews in 1492, and here, descendants of formerly Spanish Jews, have your citizenship back!) saying on Tuesday, “Requiring a public declaration, which was demanded of him alone, is a violation of conscience and — to the extent that it came because Matisyahu is Jewish — challenges the principle of non-discrimination which is the basis for all plural and diverse societies”! We at Rototom totally agree with this statement, and not because we have any worries about our public funding getting pulled.
There are a bunch of things Rototom should have said, in addition to using a tone not used by the Borg. They are:
1. We are sorry we asked the only Jewish-American person performing in this festival, who is not Israeli, to jump through this humiliating and irrelevant hoop.
2. Our actions were anti-Semitic.
3. We should not have caved to BDS [which has repeatedly invoked anti-Semitic tropes and equated “Israel” with “Jews”] because we have minds and spines of our own and should have known that they were asking us to do something immoral.
4. The reason we are not disinviting the homophobic Canadian performer Capleton, whose presence also “challenges the principle of non-discrimination which is the basis for all plural and diverse societies,” is that there hasn’t been an outcry about that.
Oops, did we say that out loud?
Wow… wow. That last image just… kind of hits you over the head with a rock.
Well done. And point 4 of their initial press release really does say it all about what they really think. Backtracking doesn’t “rectify,” let alone erase, it.
On the other hand, as apologies go, paragraphs 2 and 3 are pretty good, aren’t they? Saying flat out, “we apologize,” rather than the usual ambivalent stuff; trying to undo the harm they’ve done to the victim by renewing the invitation; and saying, again flat out, “we made a mistake,” rather than something like “we’re sorry if anyone was offended.”
The problem, as you point out very, very well, is in their original actions—but that’s what makes an apology necessary to begin with—and, especially, in the way that their original actions and their inconsistency in (not) dealing with the Canadian homophobe, make you suspect the apology isn’t sincere.
2 is good, in that it is simple and factual and names the sin. 3 is very not-good in that it does not take responsibility at all — it blames BDS. And it’s dismaying as a lead-up to paragraph 4: you can’t “reaffirm” your commitment to “respect between cultures” if you’ve failed to affirm it yesterday (and blamed someone else for your failings today).
Not an apology. On top of it, an affront to a central theme of spiritual reggae, i.e. the return to Zion. “…it was perceived that the normal functioning of the festival could be threatened.” Were there threats? Call the policia. Alert your security. Don’t blame a Jew.
I enjoy Matisyahu’s music and I think it was ridiculous for organizers of Rototom to pressure him to endorse a Palestinian state before he would be allowed to perform. Your analysis of their spineless apology was — no surprise — good and entertaining. That said, I was disappointed by the following proposed language for an appropriate apology: “We should not have caved to BDS [which has repeatedly invoked anti-Semitic tropes and equated “Israel” with “Jews”].” This statement directs the reader to a link presumably intended to back up this claim, which, to my surprise was a review of a book which challenges the legitimacy of the BDS movement. Here are my issues: 1) As journalists of conscience, which I believe both you and Susan are, it would have seemed more appropriate and enlightening to direct your readers to statements made by BDS activists themselves which would back up your claim that they “repeatedly invoke anti-Semitic tropes.” 2) Even if you hate BDS and all they stand for, this reader would have appreciated at least an acknowledgement that BDS promotes non-violent, civil-disobedience-style protest to pressure Israel to comply with international law regarding their treatment of Palestinians. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, great blog!
Thanks for your comment! I hear what you’re saying. I was looking for a single article that rounded up anti-Semitic statements by BDS activists, since I can’t link to individual statements from one phrase in the texts. I wanted to use a piece that acknowledged that while BDS’s aims are often shared by liberals of all stripes, BDS activists in actual practice have made statements and behaved in ways that can legitimately be deemed anti-Semitic. There are other organizations that believe in a two-state solution and in Israel’s need to respect human rights — such as the New Israel Fund and Peace Now — that haven’t also displayed frequent anti-Semitism. (If you have another link you’d like me to use that collects anti-Semitic statements by BDSers, I’m open to using it!)
Well, here’s my take on the subject. I have followed BDS for many years and continue to be impressed by their principled positions in support of Palestinian rights, by their strategy of non-violence and their approach of pressuring Israel to end the occupation. As you may be aware, a growing number of Jews support BDS because they believe Israel’s illegal occupation and settlement building on Palestinian land are wrong and are the main impediments to peace. Thousands of academics have signed onto BDS as well. I have not seen any statements, analyses or articles by the BDS movement of an anti-Semitic nature. That said, any movement that comprises hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are bound to have some adherents who are bigots, racists, misogynists, homophobes, and general idiots – including anti-Semites. However, I have not seen any indication that the BDS leadership, positions and overall approach promote any of these ideologies. I do understand that the BDS movement makes a lot of people uncomfortable precisely because it puts pressure on Israel to change its policies. I would submit that without such change the future for both Israelis and Palestinians is bleak indeed.
Well, except for the fact that the BDS leadership accepts the rights of a non-heterogenous group of individuals (Palestinians) without a unique culture, language, religion, ancestry or history that is separate from their nearby Arab brethren to “qualify” as a distinct nation-state that must be protected, while denying that same status to a group that does have a distinct culture, language, religion, ancestry and history (Jews). That’s certainly “principled”, but it’s a principle that goes against accepted norms of international law, and seems strangely exclusionary to Jews. Similarly, their principles of non-violence don’t seem to extend to boycotting, divesting or sanctioning the bus bombers and missile launchers of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, or their numerous state supporters, leading one to believe that their “principles” are lacking a certain, ahem, integrity.