The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions said: “Palestinian organisations urge the Rolling Stones to refrain from playing in apartheid Israel and not to condone Israel’s violations of international law and human rights against the Palestinian people.”
I’ve written about Israel and Arabs many times and I am a serious supporter of Israel, Israel is not a threat to the Arab world and indeed until the Arab Spring, were central to tyrannies, oligarchies and monarchies across the Middle East remaining in power. That is not to say that Palestine has the slightest chance of functioning without access to water supplies. The Arab world has Israel choked, Israel has the Palestinians choked, and anti-Jewish sentiment has already caused one holocaust and the right timber to the fire could lead in what the Christian right has long been awaiting, the return of Jesus from the land of his birth and the end of the world.
I am half Syrian and half Lebanese and I support the Arabs (and I love love love Lebanese and Palestinians and, believe it or not Yemini’s are a very sweet buncha people as a whole, Libyans not so much) but not the Governments of any of those countries. There were two great Arabs who could have forged peace with Israel, President Sadat and King Hussein and they are long gone.
Why on earth should that have stopped the Rolling Stones from playing Israel? It didn’t. Roger Waters and Nick Mason called playing Israel the moral equivalent to playing Sun City. Really? Well, I lived in Lebanon until the Palestinians arrived en masse after Jordan kicked them out of the Left Bank. Then they fucked all the Muslim girls and the ensuing majority of Muslims lead to a civil war with the Christian who lost their majority. What do you want Israel to do, exactly?
Everybody from Stevie Wonder to Elvis Costello abandoned Israel, but Elton didn’t, Madonna didn’t, Bob Dylan didn’t and now the Stones haven’t. According to Gigwise the Stones “took to the stage at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv, in a concert that organizers described as ‘historic'” Wednesday, June 3rd. The first time the Stones have ever played the country.
Amos Havel of Haaretz note in his review (here) that “The Stones alluded to the event’s gravity relatively early in their concert, when a video projected on giant screens behind the performers combined archival clips from their concerts in the 1960s with live shots of the Tel Aviv concert audience in 2014.”
Here is the setlist
Start Me Up
You Got Me Rocking
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)
Tumbling Dice
Angie
Doom and Gloom
Get Off of My Cloud
(by request)
Paint It Black
Honky Tonk Women
(followed by band introductions)
You Got the Silver
(Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Can’t Be Seen
(Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Midnight Rambler
(with Mick Taylor) (with You Gotta Move snippet)
Miss You
Gimme Shelter
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Sympathy for the Devil
Brown Sugar
Encore:
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
(with Mick Taylor)
