Promoters Defend Gaza Strip Action

While the Middle East conflict makes front-page headlines all over the world and scores of people protest Israel’s military action, two local promoters say their country is justified in what it’s doing.

“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If Jews put down their weapons today, there’d be no more Israel,” said Shuki Weiss, who has a Tel Aviv show with Depeche Mode in May.

“Imagine that a promoter in the southern part of the U.K. – let’s say Brighton – moved north because the coast was being shelled by a hostile terrorist organisation,” said Gad Oron of Gad Oron Productions Ltd. “And then try to imagine that the shelling also starts happening in the north of the U.K.

“This is what our company has faced for years, trying to put on events between rockets and shell drops from the Gaza strip.”
Oron said his company stopped trying to bring in international talent more than a year ago and now focuses on open-air shows with local acts.

“I don’t know of any one sovereign nation in the world that would remain indifferent to eight years of bombardment as the Israeli people have endured since 2001,” Weiss added.