Should Pearl Jam Play in Israel?

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

hedonist wrote:

But...define "gain" and "worth their while".

Are we talking financial? Moral? Political? Other?

What are the so-called reasons for playing anywhere else?

Personally, I don't know (and honestly, I don't need to know).

that is not for me to define.

the only people who know if it would be worthwhile would be the six guys in the band. the only people that know their reasons for touring anywhere are the six guys in the band.

the guys are well off financially, so i doubt that it can be measured in financial terms.

would they want to be scrutinized by fans in the international community? is it worth it to them to alienate a large number of fans for the sake of playing in front of 100,000 israelis over the course of a few nights?

Hey, you asked

But then what, appeal to the majority? The minority isn't worth it?

Like I said before, it's their own business. The word "should" is sort of irrelevant.

Hugh Freaking Dillon wrote:

chadwick wrote:

a free concert playing for peace seems like a good thing. all would be invited. flags & signs of religion left at the door. helping people heal is a good plan. ironing out countless years of fighting might be a plan all those assholes over there might try and grasp.

what does the band gain? I read some message like this and other messages like it all comes down to money. gain & money. gain & money. you folks typing this shit up should feel ashamed of yourselves.

edit...
what pearl jam as a band and as human beings would aspire to gain is peace around the world by even slightly doing what they do. a lot of input is required by every single soul on earth to move us into peace & harmony. it all start within each one of us.

I'm guessing only a band as self-important as U2 would attempt such a thing. Pearl Jam are more of a "change things locally" type of band, not a "save the world" type.

change things is good when a hot spot needs some refreshing air for once. maybe you and your band should give it a go, yes/no?

Byrnzie wrote:

yosi wrote:

This is what I love so much about your contributions. You just can't seem to ever be able to decide whether your objections are to the occupation, or just to Israel in general. And that is why I, for one, have trouble taking you at your word when you claim that your only objection is to the occupation alone.

So if a Neo-Nazi band decided to play a concert within the geographic area of the Warsaw ghetto, you wouldn't object?
I mean, you clearly think it perfectly appropriate for supporters of the IDF, and vocal supporters of the Gaza massacre of 2008-2009, to play a concert on an area that was ethnically cleansed of Palestinians in 1948.

That comparison is so far off the wall...that's like saying that it's objectionable for the US army to parade in Manhattan because it was an area ethnically cleansed of native americans.

kenny olav wrote:

To my knowledge, no member of Pearl Jam has ever spoken out about Israel, however we know that they (particularly Eddie) have befriended Howard Zinn, spoken well of Noam Chomsky, and supported Ralph Nader for President... and we know where they have all stood on Israel.

I think there is little to no chance that they will ever play in Israel... the politics of it are too divisive... I think they are smart enough to stay clear of it all.

The Campaign to Bring Pearl Jam to Israel
Check out Israeli students covering “Alive”
By Dana Kessler|May 17, 2013 1:27 PM


There is a running joke in American pop culture about how difficult it is to get into a Pearl Jam concert. The Seattle-based 90s grunge rock band has maintained its popularity over the years and, married with their crusade against Ticketmaster [1], Pearl Jam remains a tough ticket to get. Nobody tell the Israelis that.

A YouTube video of students from Olam Hamuzika music school in Maccabim-Reut is starting to go viral in Israel and is the latest push in the remarkable Bring Pearl Jam To Israel [2] campaign. In the video, a mixed group of teens is crammed into a small studio where they daringly perform the classic Pearl Jam song Alive on guitars and drums, spurred on by a long-haired conductor in Converse-sneakers.

It’s not the first time young Israeli music students impress with their ability to rock. In fact, this video is inspired by a similar one. The Artik Music School Rock Orchestra from Yehud did a rock rendition [3] of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble, which got close to 1.5 million hits on YouTube last year and prompted Swift to tweet about it and post it on her website. Since then, everyone knows that enthusiastic kids covering popular songs are the way to grab the public’s attention. And Israel’s 88FM Radio presenter Ben Red knows it too.

Red initiated the Bring Pearl Jam to Israel campaign last January, and opened a Facebook group devoted to the cause, in hope of fulfilling his dream of seeing his favorite band perform in the Yarkon Park, which has hosted concerts by some of the biggest international stars, from Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney to Madonna and U2. In the first six days, Red’s page gathered 5000 Likes. Today it has more than 23,500 Likes – an extremely impressive number for Israel.

The Bring Pearl Jam to Israel campaign is just one of many similar campaigns, each devoted to importing a different band like Led Zeppelin, Muse, and Foo Fighters. Thus far, no other campaign has been as successful as Pearl Jam’s and one of the reasons why is because of the unusual amount of activity on the group’s Facebook page. The devotees post photoshopped Pearl Jam images with Israeli symbols, sometimes incorporating images of Martin Luther King, Theodor Herzl, John Lennon and other famous dreamers, in order to make their Grunge dream come true. They’ve organized a Pearl Jam party, helping raise money for stickers and posters, and photographed a variety of local celebrities clutching posters demanding the band play in Israel. In perhaps their biggest coup, the group even got a picture with Mike McCready, Pearl Jam’s lead guitarist, holding the poster.

“Our goal is to add as many supporters as possible to our page in order to prove to the decision makers that Israel has an enormous amount of fans, and to get the message through that music is a unifying force that bridges social and political differences,” the campaigners were quoted as saying in Israel’s Mako portal.

Any Pearl Jam fan knows lead singer Eddie Vedder is friendly with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, so the statement about political division may have been addressing Waters’ recent headline-making boycott of Israel. Since Waters claimed last month that he’s willing to rethink his position, there’s room for optimism among Israeli Pearl Jam fans. And, as Ben Red said, if Vedder prefers an alternative location, like Waters, who relocated his Israeli concert in 2006 from the Yarkon Park to a Hummus field near Neve Shalom–a cooperative village founded by Jews and Arabs– then that’s fine too.

In the meantime, the grunge carries on.

yosi wrote:

That comparison is so far off the wall...that's like saying that it's objectionable for the US army to parade in Manhattan because it was an area ethnically cleansed of native americans.

The Dutch traded them beads and trinkets for it, fair and square. At some point England ethnically cleaned the Dutch.

Then the colonists ethnically cleansed the British .... :think: .... B, is this why you hate America?

yosi wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

should pearl jam play in israel?

i can not say this in a more emphatic way, but NO.

that would be an endorsement of the israeli government's policies. i would hope that a band that has shown to have a social conscience would understand that.

That makes no sense. Is PJ endorsing the policies of the US government every time it plays in the States? Obviously not. Nor are they doing so w/r/t the policies of the governments in any of the other countries in which they play. So why would Israel be any different?

um, they are FROM the US. And I don't believe they play in any other country/region where the governing body has been accused of what Israel is accused of currently.

yosi wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

should pearl jam play in israel?

i can not say this in a more emphatic way, but NO.

that would be an endorsement of the israeli government's policies. i would hope that a band that has shown to have a social conscience would understand that.

That makes no sense. Is PJ endorsing the policies of the US government every time it plays in the States? Obviously not. Nor are they doing so w/r/t the policies of the governments in any of the other countries in which they play. So why would Israel be any different?

it makes perfect sense. pearl jam is playing to it's home country when it plays america. it has seemingly avoided red states for years. it can play to fans in places where the band wants to play, and people that really want to see them travel to see them.

if 98% of the rest of the world's governments agree that the occupation and land snatching is illegal, that is all the justification that they need to avoid playing in israel. the israeli people voted for the regime that continues the occupation and settlement expansion, thereby endorsing those policies. netanyahu may not be an overwhelmingly popular person, but he and the likud is in charge, as such, those policies are not going to change. the only recourse entertainers have if they view this as a human rights crisis is to not play there.

I hope they never play there or in South Africa ...

chadwick wrote:

no it isn't the best response on this board to date... very very far from it

Thankfully for me, you and I have different opinions.

My opinion is that some opinions are indeed more right than others, and that there very often are different opinions, and that my opinion is always right.