Israeli musician Alon Farber received a rejection letter from “Kenneth” at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, informing him that artists from Israel will not be welcome at the event “these years” for what he called “political reasons.”
There were no other details and no further explanation in the rejection letter, which the musician included on his wall in this English-language post in which he expressed his Israeli outrage:
I’m writing this post in English because I think it’s relevant to all of you. I just applied for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. The reply was that:
“Hi Alon,
For political reasons, we are not presenting artists from Israel these years, unfortunately.
Regards,
Kenneth”
So, what do you think? I was so mad. I answered them:
“I think it’s hypocrisy to blame only one side in responsibility for the situation between Israel and the Palestinian
The Palestinian rejected almost every peace proposal in the last 50 years, and are to blame as well in the conflict
Are you rejecting Palestinian musicians as well?
Good night”
Curious what you’re thinking about it
Good week to you all
To be clear: Alon Farber studied jazz composition at Berklee College of Music, and music therapy at Bar Ilan University. He is a professional musician in every way.
The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism sent a response to the festival organizer of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, asking “whether the Festival has a policy of postponing other musicians in the world for political reasons, or whether this policy applies to Israelis only.”