Music fans in attendance at a Rihanna concert in Israel Tuesday night say that a claim made by a journalist, writing for Israeli daily Haaretz, that the Barbadian singer offered a nod to “Palestine” as she sang, is bogus.“In ‘Pour it Up’ instead of ‘All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs,’ she subbed in ‘All I see is Palestine,’” wrote Amy Klein, in a report now mirrored by the Huffington Post, UPI, BuzzFeed, Radar Online and multiple Arab outlets.“I was amazed when I read the Haaretz story as it didn’t tally with my experience at the concert,” attendee Michael Dickson, who is the Director of advocacy group StandWithUs’s Israel office, told The Algemeiner.Writing for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, journalist Simone Wilson said that in a poll of about 10 of her friends who attended the concert, “all of them agreed that Rihanna never used the word ‘Palestine.’”Jerusalem Post reporter Lahav Harkov was the first to challenge the report when she tweeted “If every newspaper in the country sent ppl to the @rihanna concert & only Haaretz heard a pro-Palestinian comment, it probably didn’t happen.”In amateur footage of Rihanna singing “Pour it Up,” at the concert, published on YouTube, the word “Palestine” can’t be heard.Rihanna expressed enthusiasm about her trip to Israel in the lead-up to her appearance via her social media accounts, tagging her posts “#Israel.”Amanda Silverman, Rihanna’s publicist, did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.The Haaretz newspaper has a history of running misleading reports and has been forced to issue embarrassing corrections in the past.Footage of Rihanna singing ”Pour it Up,” at the concert can be viewed below at 06:00 approx:
Michael Dickson, who was interviewed above, wrote up his own post about it.
Isn't it interesting that the Ha'aretz reporter misheard the lyrics?
It seems like a pattern at that newspaper. Haaretz reports what it wants to believe instead of the truth a bit too often.
UPDATE: Haaretz issued a correction:
The original headline for this article has been changed (from “All Rihanna sees 'is Palestine,' but Israelis didn’t seem to care”) and a sentence was removed from the story ("Nor did they care when in “Pour it Up” instead of “All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs,” she subbed in “All I see is Palestine,” or the fact that she just kept inserting calls of “Tel Aviv!” in every song – never once saying the word Israel.") Upon reviewing video footage of the show posted after publication, it is clear that the change in lyrics attributed to Rihanna was mistaken.So far, HuffPo has not changed (now they have) its headline and RadarOnline has not corrected its story either.