Photo by: El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe

Now this is the most disgusting piece of news I've read today:

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. - Officials in Old Saybrook have canceled performances by a Palestinian dance troupe after getting a complaint that it is offensive to Jews and Israel.

The decision involves planned performances at the town's elementary and middle schools by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe.

Town resident Ginger Horton says she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

Here is the yucky part:

Horton says the grandchildren told her the high school performance depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio says he canceled further performances after learning several parents questioned whether it was appropriate for their children. [Source]

Keep in mind the following:

1. Who is offended? American Jewish, not Israeli... or are they?

2. What they are offended by? "Depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians". What? Offended because the victim depicted the aggressor? Holly God!

More details from the same news source:

The performance by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe of Beit Sahour was meant to be cultural and not overtly political, said the Rev. David W. Good, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, where the troupe performed this past weekend.

But resident Ginger Horton said she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

"[My] grandchildren came home very frightened," Horton said Thursday.

Good, who saw the performance at the school, disagreed.

"I saw nothing there that was anti-Jewish," Good said. "It was a cultural program ... Anything of this nature, given the realities of where they live, the political realities are a short distance away."

The key words here are "The performance ... meant to be cultural and not overtly political". This is politically and culturally wrong statement. It only shows that Mr. Good doesn't know that the resistance of the Israeli occupation is (inevitably) part of the Palestinian culture.

It is nothing but a Zionist tactic to tag everything that uncovers their crimes as anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic.

Reading on...

Good said many of the dances performed were simply traditional, but he acknowledged one was particularly upsetting to a male student in the audience. That more modern dance "certainly expressed the frustration of detention by Israeli soldiers" and dealt with curfews, checkpoints and the realities of detention, Good said.

The male student became angry and said Palestinians "do not want peace even though they talk about peace in their dances," Good said.

At the end of the performance, the student pursued the performers, he said.

"He was angrily shaking a finger in the face of a Palestinian girl," Good said. "I asked him to stop."

Horton said it was inappropriate for the public school system to host what she called a hateful, politically charged event.

Now who is hateful? The Palestinian dancers of those who attacked them and gave a finger to a Palestinian girl? Yet, the dancers (victims) were punished, not the attacker(s)... as usual practice by the ignorant American public (minority of Americans knows and support the truth, that is the Palestinians rights and fight against the Israeli occupation. To those, a salute).

Reading on...

"My concern was that it would be stopped, and we stopped it," said Horton, who also contacted the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio, who did not attend the high school performance, said a male Jewish student became "emotionally charged and upset" by the visitors' depiction of Jews.

So, they were afraid of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut and called the show off. But again (and sorry for the repetition), who said that they depicted Jews? They depict the Israeli aggression and some of its behaviors (torture, checkpoints, etc...). What the hell all this have to do with Jews?

Reading on...

Bob Fishman, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut, said Old Saybrook public schools should not host groups with a perceived political agenda. He lauded upset local students and family members who "stepped up."

"It was a very disturbing report [Horton] got from her grandchildren," Fishman said. "I advised her that it's not appropriate for a sponsor to say it's cultural when it's primarily political."

Fishman said his organization plans to discuss the performances with state legislators and top state education officials.

"These are public schools, taxpayer dollars," Fishman said.

"They were very careful" not to make a political statement, Good said of the troupe. "They were asked to share their dance, and share their story living in the occupied territory. They did so through music."

Let's judge by the American Jews (or should I say, Zionist) actions.

Are we to assume that the "upset male Jewish student", Mr. Fishman, the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut and Mrs. Horten's positions are non-political?

Mrs. Horton said her "grandchildren came home very frightened," yet it was the Jewish protesters who played the "Heavies" in this episode, not the dancers.

It was the Zionist perspective that denied free speech. The Palestinian dancers were expressing the Israel curfews, checkpoints, torture and the realities of detention because they are as much a part of Palestinian life and cultural experience as the "Wailing Wall" and the Holocaust are to Jews.

Canceling the show is awful and everything that followed is a result of acquiescence to censorship and intimidation by a vocal minority. Art and dance act as commentary on the human condition with all its glories, tragedies and blemishes, no matter the source. Caving in to calls for censorship, in a supposedly 'free society', can be a slippery slope indeed. Who gets to be the arbiter of what we all get to see? Should it be an "aggravated Jewish student"? Should it be a pathetic bureaucrat fearful of offending some vocal minority? Who will you surrender your intellect to?

More Palestinian Folklore Dance photos (by El-Funoun) here...