In Madrid, an Israeli singer's concert, scheduled as part of that city's July 3rd Pride events, has been cancelled. The singer in question is Dana International, an Israeli transgender singer who won the 1998 Eurovision song contest. It was also announced that the Israeli contingent would be barred from the Madrid Pride Parade.The president of Spain's Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transexuals and Bisexuals linked these moves to the Israeli response to the Gaza "peace flotilla": "After what has happened, it seemed barbaric to us as human rights campaigners to have Israelis take part."
Israel passed comprehensive legislation banning all discrimination against LGBT people over two decades ago. Gays serve openly in the Israeli military. On the other hand, legal protections for LGBT people are non-existent in the Palestinian territories. There are a few Palestinian LGBT rights groups, but these are headquartered in Israel, because no such organization can openly function in either Gaza or the West Bank.
In a related story, on June 8th, two Israeli business men were injured while attending a conference at the Autonomous University of Madrid. A group of demonstrators broke into the location of the conference, at which many Israelis were participants, chanting "Murderers!!". As conference participants were being escorted away by police they were pelted with stones, resulting in injuries to two Israelis. The police stated that they believed "most of the rioters were Muslims."Sources:
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This is absurd, just really irrational thinking. You don't like what a particular nation-state does, so you ban its citizens, who have little to do with its policies, from participating in a cultural event? Can't people think straight anymore? If you don't like what the Israeli GOVERNMENT did, protest that GOVERNMENT. I would have been pissed if I had scheduled a concert somewhere, and it was cancelled because of something that Bush did. What have I to do with Bush, or with any elite in charge of things for that matter?
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