Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:44PM Gilad Atzmon 
/Statement from the Dean of Bradford 23rd November 2011:
"Raise Your Banners booked the Cathedral for a concert some months ago, but did not notify us of any controversial issues to do with any of the performers. I have become aware of the controversial nature of Gilad Atzmon and the statements made about him, since being contacted by the Council for Christians and Jews a few weeks ago. The concert was recently withdrawn from the Cathedral owing to slow ticket sales, but had the venue not changed I would have considered not allowing it to take place as, although I have had no clear evidence of anti-semitism or racism, the perception of this around Gilad Atzmon would have made it an inappropriate concert to hold in a religious building.
The headline on the Hope not Hate blog of 22 November, which says that I have called for the concert to be cancelled does not relate my words to their context. I wrote in response to a particular comment on Nick Lowles' blog of 19 November which called for a lobby of the Cathedral and the Bishop to get them to withdraw the invitation to Gilad Atzmon.//The statement clarifies that we did not make the invitation, reiterates that the concert is not happening on church premises, and //raises concerns but does not make allegations about what Mr Atzmon has said; nor does it make a call for the invitation to Mr Atzmon to be withdrawn. I simply say that I am passing on the concerns I had received to Kala Sangam. I do not in the statement tell Kala Sangam what to do with those concerns. I accept that Raise Your Banners and Kala Sangam are making their own judgements about this issue.
Our concern is to be clear that Bradford Cathedral is committed to working for truth, peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis, of whatever faith." /
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment