Does this sound familiar?
“Several credible threats of protest and demonstration[s] have been planned in response to the appearance of Achinoam ‘Noa’ Nini at Adat Shalom [Synagogue in Farmington Hills, a suburb of Detroit] on Thursday, May 18.
“We have been working with law enforcement . . . based on these threats . . . in keeping with the safety of our community . . . cancel the concert.”
A re-run of Berkeley, at which a right-wing speaker was threatened with violence last month, so her engagement was cancelled.
Noa is reportedly critical of the Israel Defense Forces, a board member of the New Israel Fund, unhappy with Israeli actions in the West Bank. She is someone whose views we might take issue with. Which is an entirely separate matter from cancelling a concert and silencing a performer. That is wrong.
It is true that the local community may have overreacted to the prospect of protests, since there were no reports of threats of violence. If Noa is entitled to her views, protesters are entitled to theirs, too.
But assuming that there was more to the threatened protests than a demonstration, then the Jewish community of Detroit has more than a little to learn from Denver, where Noa performed last year without incident.
There is more to the free speech issue than that which is let on by the CEO of the New Israel Fund, Daniel Sokatch, who attributed the cancellation to “[b]ullies and bigots.” Again, assuming that the cancellation wasn’t just a week-kneed judgment in the face of a legitimate demonstration, Sokatch is right — up to a point. Alas, bullies and silencers are found on all sides of the political spectrum these days. No one has a monopoly on the desire to close down free speech. Noa herself was only half-right when she said, “I’m saddened and outraged to see that this aggressive campaign of silencing, which we know too well from the extremist fringe in Israel, has made its way to the American Jewish community as well.” Actually, some on both the Jewish right and left vie for the dubious distinction of Free Speech Silencer.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
