ZOA Praises Guggenheim Museum for Canceling Anti-Semitic, Pro-Terrorist “Klinghoffer” Opera Performance; Again Urges Met Opera to Also Cancel This Disgrace

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praises the Guggenheim Museum for canceling its “Death of Klinghoffer” event, which had been scheduled for Friday October 10, 2014 as part of the Guggenheim’s “works and progress” series. The Guggenheim event would have included Metropolitan Opera performers performing excerpts from the pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic “Klinghoffer” opera.

The Guggenheim Museum called ZOA this past Friday (August 8) to notify ZOA that the Guggenheim was canceling its event, and that the museum was not planning to reschedule a “Death of Klinghoffer” event. About a week before, ZOA spoke with Guggenheim Museum officials, urging the museum to cancel the performance/event.

As ZOA’s prior press releases explained, “Death of Klinghoffer” rewrites history to malign Israel, in an attempt to justify and “humanize” the Palestinian terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and murdered an innocent disabled Jewish-American passenger named Leon Klinghoffer in cold blood. The Palestinian terrorists shot and threw Mr. Klinghoffer and his wheelchair overboard into the ocean – a brutal act that shocked all good persons of conscience. Yet, as Charles Krauthammer recently noted, the Death of Klinghoffer opera is “deeply sympathetic to the killers.”

Leon Klinghoffer’s surviving daughters were shocked and dismayed that Palestinian terrorists’ brutal murder of their father has been perverted into an anti-Semitic opera that glorifies the terrorists, espouses anti-Semitic canards (such as that Jews cheat, lie, pollute virgins, get fat from the poor, etc.), denies the Jewish connection to Israel, and falsifies Israel’s history.
The so-called “justifications” for terrorism presented in the opera are defamatory fiction. For instance, the opera falsely portrays Israeli Jews as brutally driving out Arabs and “laying waste to all” Arab homes in 1948. Outrageously, the opera even compares Jewish treatment of Arabs in 1948 to Nazi treatment of Jews in 1943. In fact, as impartial British police reports described and every world newspaper confirmed (including newspapers not particularly fond of the Jewish State), Jewish leaders begged Arabs to stay and live together in peace, while Arab leaders from seven Arab nations and the Arab High Command insisted that Arabs living in Israel must leave so that the invading Arab nations’ war to annihilate Israel’s Jews could proceed unencumbered by a local Arab civilian population. If the Arab nations had not attacked Israel in 1948 and told their brethren to leave, there would have been no “Palestinian refugees.” Moreover, many Arabs did in fact stay in Israel, and are full citizens of Israel today, holding lofty positions such as doctors, Supreme Court judge, other judges, and Knesset members. Jews are also falsely depicted in the opera as arriving belatedly in Israel by taxi with an empty suitcase; the opera falsely denies the longstanding Jewish history and Jewish continuing presence in Israel throughout the centuries. (Jews were a majority of Jerusalem since the mid-1800s. Most Arabs moved into Israel after Jews “made the desert bloom.”)

The opera also condemns Israel and the Western world for their tolerance towards gay people. (Palestinian groups including Hamas condemn gay persons to death, as do countries such as Iran.)

Rising anti-Semitism, including ugly and frightening incidents in San Diego, Miami Beach, Chicago and right here in New York such as the murder of a rabbi who was walking to Synagogue in Miami Beach, and Palestinians defacing Israel Discount Bank’s New York branch while screaming for the destruction of Israel last week, makes it even more of an imperative to avoid anti-Semitic productions such as “Death of Klinghoffer.”

The Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled its production of the Klinghoffer opera. In addition, several of the opera companies that co-commissioned the opera, including the Los Angeles Opera, refused to perform it. In addition, after ZOA contacted officials at AMC theaters, broadcasts of the opera were canceled.

ZOA President Morton Klein stated:

“We are very pleased to see that the esteemed Guggenheim Museum has joined with other responsible organizations to cancel an opera that purveys vicious falsehoods against Jews and Israel, and legitimizes, romanticizes and humanizes Arab terrorist killers of Jews. It is gratifying that some organizations understand that the worldwide epidemic of terrorism and hatred towards Jews, Christians and the West should not be fueled with pro-terrorist propaganda that masquerades as art.

Unfortunately, another organization, the Metropolitan Opera, still does not seem to comprehend the danger that it is fomenting and the disgrace that it is bringing upon itself by performing “Death of Klinghoffer.” We again urge the Met to cancel its offensive still-scheduled 8 live performances of this anti-Semitic anti-Israel pro-terrorist opera in New York this fall.”

ZOA is an active founding member of the STOP coalition (STOP = Stop Terrorist OPera, StopDeathofKlinghoffer.com), which is planning protests at the Met Opera on September 22 (opening night of the opera season), October 20, 2014 (opening night of “Klinghoffer”), and other dates when the Met is scheduled to perform the opera. Please contact liz@zoa.org if you would like to get involved in the protests and other efforts to stop this pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic opera.

While we are pleased at the good news of the Guggenheim’s cancellation, our job is not complete until the Met follows the good example of the Guggenheim Museum, the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Opera, and other opera houses, and there are no performances of this disgraceful, anti-Semitic propaganda opera.

ZOA