Boycott Leonard Cohen

"Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on all supporters of a just peace in our region to shun your concerts and CDs and to protest your appearances everywhere." Because Cohen will give a performance in Israel.

If this over-reaching does not serve finally to discredit the obnoxious concept of an academic boycott of Israel, I don't know what will.

"Academic"? There is nothing "academic" about him, he writes pop ditties.

Because they are calling for a secondary boycott of Cohen everywhere.

Perhaps someone will ask that opponents of Israel should boycott you because you post to a site where some people oppose the academic boycott? 

Oh I see, they should only boycott him in Tel Aviv, not everywhere. That would be unfair.

Time to see which Cohen albums I still need to purchase.

Well, I don't support the overall boycott of Israel, however I have been boycotting Cohen for many years now...so I will continue to do so. I am with Cueball in post #1 - but I would add in the grating and annoying singing voice he has.

It is his words that return to me, such as, "here's to the few who forgive what you do and the fewer that don't even care".

LOL

What I find funny is that people take his Buddhist experience and lay their opinions of what that must mean onto him and then when he doesn't conform to their thinking about what Buddhism is they attack him.

There are thousands of Leonard Cohen fans, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million who have found his words and music of value.  I know I am grateful.

Like he said, "here's to the few who forgive what you do" and obviously you don't fall into that category  LOL  "and the fewer who don't even care" and even more clearly you don't get what that means.

All your contempt says to me is that you are filled with contempt.  Sad.

As for any boycott, I think we can decide to boycott and we can ask for support for that boycott but if others do not support the boycott we still need to practice respect for them and their to right to make other choices.

I recognize the world is larger than my opinions, I respect that others have the right to choose something different than what I choose.

As far as your comments regarding the Israeli audience that would listen to Leonard, perhaps many of them are also opposed to what the Israeli government is doing, perhaps many fans will boycott his performance there, we don't know.  You don't know and yet you make sarcastic statements regarding their "holding hands and singing to Hallelujah ........enabling the vcious regime that oppresses and kills Palestinians".  Are you saying that all Jews living in Israel are for the murder of all Palestinians?

Now that is interesting info about AI, I was wondering what they were up to these days, now I know.

It's not just a matter of someone having different opinions. I have no problem with that. It's a matter of someone taking action to thwart efforts by millions of people around the world to put an end to Israeli apartheid through the peaceful means of a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign.

That's what is reprehensible. 

I didn't even mention Jews living in Israel. I said Israelis.

Perhaps you weren't paying close attention last January when the opinion polls showed overwhelming public support among Israelis for the murderous assault on Gaza?

I see no reason to assume that those attending Cohen's concert aren't similarly inclined.

Fine, so in your opinion Israelis attending Leonard Cohen support the murder of the Palestinians. I don't know that that is true but you are free to rely on opinion polls.  I suspect there will be quite a few Jewish Israelis there and I suspect that they are horrified by what is happening to the Palestinians too.

I won't be responding to any of your posts in future.

Since an overwhelming majority - 90-96% - of Jewish Israelis supported the massacre of Palestinians last January, it's likely that 9 out of 10 Israelis attending a Leonard Cohen concert support Israeli murder of Arabs anyway.

too much by far - but true:

Overwhelming Israeli Support of Gaza Op

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull...

There you go again showing off your wonderful capacity for mean spirited smallness, please continue, you are just getting smaller and nastier and smaller and nastier. LOL

LOL

Tickets for Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv Go On Sale Saturday

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104362.html

I read the paper here and know that my views are being shaped and that the MSM is completely manipulated so why would I trust another paper which appears to be MSM?

I did find a site, a fan site for Leonard, and I was shocked by some people's veiws, it appears I am naive in my thinking that those who listen to him take what he says seriously.  So I must revise my thinking on that and hope that at least some of those attending his concert will be people working for change but I can't because sadly I have to say that if they really were working for change they too would support the boycott.  I think they would be the best people to tell him not to play there.

Maybe he isn't as profound as you think (thought), and his lyric are so open to interpretation, they can sit well with anyone's ideology.

It is true, I think that Cohen volunteered for the IDF during the Yom Kipur War, something that was a little bit more understandable at that time, since the general level of understanding of the situation in the occupied territories was less well known, but by now ignorance of the facts is just inexcusable, especially since the situation has deteriorated substantially. Israel fights agressive wars far outside the limits of its UN mandate, and engages in wholesale massacres of persons in the Arab cities within the range its aircraft on a regular basis, with virtual impunity. During Yom Kimpur, at least the Arabs states had some serious military capability, given their status as Soviet clients, but now, they basically have squat, while the IDF remains one of the most powerful armies in the world.

It makes absolutely no difference who buys the tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, and what their opinions are about Palestine and Zionism.

Cohen's flouting of the cultural boycott would be no less reprehensible if the entire audience were Sikhs or Buddhists. 

Er... as far as I understand this, I think some peeps might want to have a second look at what he's actually doing. Just food for thought.... I might be wrong, but trying to play both in Israel AND Palestine with the message he proposing doesn't sound like a bad thing? Thoughts?

"Leonard Cohen will donate ALL of his Israeli concert profits to a newly established fund for Palestinian and Israeli children, Israeli sponsors said.....

Tickets for Cohen's Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace concert in Israel go on sale this weekend, the sponsors said Friday.....

"It is still unclear whether Cohen will perform for Palestinians in Ramallah. A scheduled performance Sept. 26 was postponed after the Palestinian Prisoners' Club Society said Cohen was not welcome...."

LINK.

Hey ennir, give Spector a chance. He's progressive, and quite a brilliant resource around here. He does have this minor tendency to exaggerate certain issues, and once he's challenged, he never gives an inch.

For example, let's say I claimed that the almost 50% of Canadians who (according to polls) either support or are indifferent to our invasion of Afghanistan were all bloodthirsty individuals who craved the death of innocent Afghan civilians. You would see that as an exaggeration with the tiniest grain of truth, right? Hopefully?

Just trying to be a conciliator here, although I recognize the risk - being scorned by both sides - which in itself is ironically a form of unity!

Not to mention the unanimity of being scorned by casual observers. 

If as many Israelis supported the mass murder of Palestinians as the polls would indicate, then the only solution to the Middle East problem is the expulsion or execution of almost all Israelis - as indeed we ought to have done with Germans and Japanese after World War II, right?.

That's why I prefer to think that polls (which generally, but not always, elicit the responses that the ruling circles have themselves engendered) are not accurate guides to the way Israelis really feel, if provided with a framework whereby all inhabitants could live in freedom.

Personally, before going apeshit over boycotting those who won't boycott, I'd rather see us boycotting something - as some trade unions and Canadian organizations have actually begun to do. Otherwise, we will be boycotting the AFN for visiting and praising Israel, instead of just engaging them in debate over why they would be so misled as to mistake enemies for friends. That's just one example.

Let me repeat that. Start by generating a significant movement, in this country, to boycott everything to do with Israel. Then have debates later about what to do with those who won't abide by the boycott. Otherwise, the cart is careening wildly ahead of the horse.

And while we're at it, we might consider boycotting Canadian artists who entertain the troops in Afghanistan.

No, I'm not kidding about boycotting those who facilitate our invasion of Afghanistan - that's why I raised the issue. I still think we need to do direct work to convince people of the need to boycott everything Israeli. The Cohen issue is more difficult.

So you are all for boycotting Amnesty International too mspector?

How do you boycott Cohen?

Um, gee, I don't know, remind.... maybe by not buying his music or going to his concerts?

So, um, does Amnesty International have any CDs or concerts that I can boycott?

Then don't buy his t-shirts ;)

If you don't really have an answer as to how I can "boycott" Amnesty International, then why don't you just say so, and admit that your question at post #52 above was B.S.?

Action Alert: Protest Amnesty International/Leonard Cohen

http://bodyontheline.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/action-alert-protest-amnes...

"By assisting Cohen in his ruse to bypass this boycott, Amnesty International is in fact taking a political stance, in violation of the premise of political neutrality with which it so regularly justifies its failure to side unambiguously with the oppressed. Amnesty is telling us: resistance is futile, the voice of the oppressed is irrelevent..."

The only good Rod Stewart Album, Michelle, is A Night on the Town and i bought that on vinyl in 1978 and own it on CD. Ro Stewart and Elton John produced Long John Baldry's Everything Stops for Tea, an iconic album. I never liked Iglesiais; I'll stick with Cohen, Michelle, but thanks for the recommendations.

Clicking the above link produces this message: "You are not authorised to view this resource.
You need to login."

What kind of antiwar movement would have a website that requires you to log in in order to read its message? I assume one that has absolutely no sense of how to communicate with a mass audience.

Here's a link that's open to the public: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22184

Since the intent of a boycott is to affect some particular change, I'm curious what specific change a boycott of Leonard Cohen is expected to lead to.  Let's say that everyone who buys Leonard Cohen albums and goes to his concerts stops supporting him.  OK, so Cohen gets the message and no longer plays shows in Israel.  The response of the Israeli public to that action is going to be what?  Nothing, probably.  If anything, it will likely entrench in the more militant Israelis the belief that the rest of the world is out to get them and doesn't understand their situation.  I mean, I seriously doubt that foreign concerts in Israel are such a huge economic boon to the local economy that they'd really miss the revenue.

And presumably given the complicity of the American government in Israel's campaigns in Gaza (not to mention American military efforts elsewhere), we should also boycott people who play concerts in the U.S., right?  And, I mean, Canada's governments aren't exactly known as the greatest critics of Israel either, so we should probably stop supporting anyone who plays concerts in Canada too.  This will clearly show the Israelis that we really mean it.

so why no academic/cultural boycott of the United States - the great satan???

..in my almost 40 years of activism there is one thing i have learned and that is who the enemy is. leonard cohen for all his faults and virtues is not the enemy no more than the scabs are that crossed the picket line when i was on strike. there needs to be a different way of dealing with people who fall by the wayside if we are ever going build coalitions strong enought to alter the powers that be. demonizing does not work because purity does not exist. it never has and it never will.

We're not talking about a strike here.

We're talking about matters of life and death for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

It's all very well for us to sit around here and decide for the Palestinians who their enemy "really" is and, like Roman emperors, turn our thumbs up or down.

The fact is the Palestinians themselves have called for an academic, cultural, and economic boycott, along with dis-investment of capital in Israeli businesses and economic and diplomatic sanctions against Israel. The object is to isolate Israel as an outlaw among nations and pressure it into ending its blockades, wars, occupations, and theft of Palestinian land.

Those who support the Palestinian cause should observe and comply with the BDS campaign, in solidarity. Those who knowingly refuse to do so are expressing their solidarity with Israel, and playing their own small part in enabling the crimes of the Israeli state against the Palestinians to continue.

There are times when progressive people are called upon to stand up and be counted. This is one of them.  

You're still conducting a personal secondary boycott against Shell for breaking the South Africa boycott that ended 15 years ago, and yet you present bullshit rationalizations for Leonard Cohen's knowingly breaking the boycott against Israel?

The only rational conclusion is that you don't support the Israel boycott. Why not just say so?

Keeping "perspective" as you suggest means that we remember that Israel was also a staunch supporter of Shell and the South African Apartheid state and that the malevolent oppression of Palestinians by Israel more than qualifies it for the same "enemy of humanity" consideration by you. There's a giant contradiction here resolved only by you getting your ass over to the right side of the line on this.

The other thing to keep in mind is that not everyone on this list is boycotting Israel.

If he lived in Israel he would not be breaking the boycott by performing there. The fact is he does not live in Israel and has knowingly flouted the boycott by performing there. You said he didn't live in Israel as if that were a mitigating circumstance, when in fact it is the reason why his performance there violates the boycott. 

And to say this thread is "not about Israel" is absurd.

Hypothetical question: You hear some music being played at a friend's house, party, etc. that you absolutely love and think to yourself that you want to find out the artists name and get their album. When you look them up online, you discover that they are Israeli. Do you refuse to listen or get their music?  Is your answer different if you know that they are active in Palestinian solidarity work?

No. It's a scam.  See post #41 or the following:

Resigning from Cohen and Amnesty

http://pulsemedia.org/2009/07/30/resigning-from-cohen-and-amnesty/

Amnesty urged to reject "tainted" funds from Leonard Cohen

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10687.shtml

Leonard Cohen, Amnesty partner with Settlers to play phoney peace gig

http://www.artistsagainstapartheid.org/?tag=leonard-cohen

..for a short while it was nice to think that the above was real. alas it is not. and since it is not i acknowledge that cohen should not have broken with the boycott. i have no appetite for punishing him though and i do not see him as the enemy.
..i was hoping that the concerns i raised in previous posts would find resolve but not today. another time perhaps. i do appreciate the opportunity to raise them.

Amnesty International USA gives no real reason for pulling out of involvement in the distribution of proceeds. Their press release makes it clear they have no regrets at all over their support for Cohen's activity in Israel, but obviously they are bowing to pressure from supporters of the BDS campaign:

of course not she's a "material girl"

Not really Joel. I enjoyed listening to Cohen's Live in London album last night.

I tried playing Deep Purple loud the other night and my children told me to turn it down. Bloody generation gap...

I'm listening to Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story - LOUD - and it's just like being there live. It's such a great album.

No call for a boycott against Madonna or lady Gaga. Yet Cohen attracts a boycott call. Why just him?