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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Haters disrupt South Africa Yom Ha'Atzmaut concert - no news coverage

Last night, there was a concert in Gold Reef City, Johannesburg to celebrate Yom Ha'Atzmaut:


The counter-tenor Yaniv D'Or describes what happened on his Facebook page:

Dear Friends,

Tonight I felt the venom of hatred. During a performance in Johannesburg a group or protestors stormed the Lyric Theatre and shouted some strong pro palestinians slogans as I was singing the wonderful melody of Eli Eli which is written by Hannah Senesh at the time of the holocaust.

They hated me for the wrong reasons. I am a proud Israeli and British citizen and very much supporting freedom for Palestine...

I continued singing as if nothing happened in hope it was a one off incident. I was so wrong. After the break without any particular reason another protestor (female) stormed the stage as I was singing and started shouting again pro palestinian slogans, this time also exploding stinky bombs on stage.

In a state of shock and this time also anger, I found myself hugging her, lifting her on my side while accompanying her back stage before handing her to security. She could have very easily stub me but my impulse was stronger than me and I couldn't feel fear at that point.

Everyone have the right to voice their opinion but interrupting a concert just because of religious or nationality hatred is too much for me. There are other means one should express disagreement. Not like this.

Sad times.
One responder in Facebook named Sarah Wainer verified the event:
I was at the concert last night. Yaniv gave an incredible performance, what a beautiful voice! How he managed to throw the lady off the stage and continue to sing at the same time, was also amazing!!! :) Thank you Yaniv!
I cannot find a single news story about the interruption. SABC briefly mentions the protesters outside, but nothing about the concert itself being interrupted:
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) South Africa held a protest outside Gold Reef City in Johannesburg last night, where supporters of Israel were attending a music concert to celebrate Israeli Independence.
It seems likely that the stink-bomb attack was well planned by BDS South Africa, because the hashtag in Twitter for the protest is "IsraelApartheidStinks." According to one anti-Israel tweeter, there were two women arrested - but they were released.

Is the South African community so inured to these obnoxious haters that no one even thinks people throwing stink-bombs in the middle of a performance is even worth mentioning?

(h/t Steven Z)