SMH: Sydney Festival show cancelled, program changed following Bondi attack
This piece feels like festival PR, trying to pre-empt a controversy. No Jewish voices were quoted, there are no specifics on community objections, and scrutiny of programming choices is so weak as to be almost absent.
See: the original article
Sins
Let’s Frame This
The whole first part of the article exists to make you think that the festival cares a lot. Look at all these acts we’ve cancelled or changed (two acts) out of a feeling of compassion to the Jewish community. Any thoughts from the community on these things? No idea, there are no quotes or even suggestions that people were asked. I’m surprised they didn’t ask the (raashans at the ready) Jewish Council of Australia for their reaction, as they often do.
In fairness, Legs on the Wall and El Pampero Cine certainly seem to have their hearts in the right place. The same can’t be said of the festival director Kris Nelson.
Carrying Water
Nelson, defending his decision to proceed with Nowhere […] said he had spoken to Abdalla immediately after the Bondi attacks.
Not that he had spoken to anyone from the Jewish community, Jewish artists, or Jewish patrons of his consistently anti-Israel positioned festival (e.g. last year’s community spirit)
Does the author of this piece want to see what those objections might be? The article notes that there were some nondescript Jewish objections to the show but doesn’t detail them. Certainly let’s not waste any space or time describing what those were. Why would the views of the Jewish community matter on the subject? The Herald treats these concerns as an afterthought, barely worth mentioning.
He’s not inflammatory and his work in my view is not antisemitic. No, of course not, just antizionist—as if there’s any meaningful difference when it comes to the safety of Jews in Australia. So we’ll platform another anti-Israel mouthpiece.
I know that the festival can’t be a panacea or an antidote to everything that’s happened Certainly not when you show no evidence of concern for the people who were harmed by “everything that’s happened” or can even acknowledge it.
Nelson said he hoped this year’s festival could help Sydney, even in a small way, to begin to heal. This can certainly go up as one of the most useless sentences said this year and we’re only 3 days in.
But I really hope that by gathering, by being in the lobbies and the foyers together, by dancing at a show or hearing the spoken word … that there’s some kind of coming together and that the festival offers a kind of place of solace, a place of community. Yes, there will definitely be a coming together for the Jewish community by having the festival host a headlined show in which Israel is accused of genocide and the deaths of Jews on October 7th are ignored. After Bondi, that’s exactly what we’re all asking for—more platforms for those who minimize our pain.
Do we ask Questions Anymore?
Jazz is about playing the pauses. What is there an absence of in this statement?
Oh right, Jews. Note that Kris Nelson doesn’t point to any of the (I assume zero or nearly so) Jewish or Israeli acts taking part in the festival. Jewish artists in Australia are fairly verboten after the galling temerity to exist after October 7th, and even those who are willing to throw their own under the bus aren’t in vogue. The silence on this point is deafening.
The Herald doesn’t ask whether there are Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist acts in the festival or if there aren’t any, why not. Asking questions isn’t how journalism is done these days. Maybe there are loads. It would certainly make for a more interesting article to know.
Overall Review
Just completely useless. The Herald is doing damage control for the Sydney Festival. They aren’t even a sponsor, so you can’t accuse them of carrying water for themselves, but there’s really no excuse for this complete absence of journalism in the current climate. Festivals can put out their own press releases. The Herald should be doing actual reporting, not stenography.
Overall rating: 2/10 (a dry bagel, no substance, no depth).