The September 25 Friendship First concert at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv comes 43 years after The Beatles were allegedly banned by the Israeli government for being a threat to the morals of the country’s youth.

Tickets for the show, which went on sale before it was confirmed, are reportedly going for between $140 and $430.

Although Israeli Ambassador Ron Proso publicly apologized for the banning of The Beatles from the country earlier this year, the story has come under some scrutiny lately, with the son of the official blamed for the incident claiming it was battling promoters who actually prevented the Fab Four from visiting and calling it “a Zionist urban legend.”

Yossi Sarid, son of late Education Ministry director Yaakov Sarid, said competition between the promoters was so bitter that when one of them, Yaakov Uri, was about to bring The Beatles to the Jewish state, his rival, Giora Godik, put the kibosh on the plan by using his official connections to ensure government approval needed to obtain foreign currency to pay for the gig was denied.

Sarid’s version of events is supported by Israel’s pre-eminent pop music critic and historian, Yoav Kutner, who recounted the details in Haaretz August 25. “It never happened that way,” Kutner said of the oft-told story.

The story has lived on because – accurate or not – it accurately reflects the times. The ’60s was the heyday of Israel’s socialist ideology, which sanctified sacrifice and scorned materialism and Western frivolities. Officially, earnest Hebrew paens to the beauty of the Land of Israel and to the military were in. “Love Me Do” was out.

Ironically, McCartney almost played in Israel one other time – with Wings in the late ’70s – but problems with the venue prevented him from visiting the country.