http://forward.com/articles/166877/stevie-wonder-pulls-out-of-israel-gala/ And this is in a Jewish Paper
Stevie Wonder is set to pull out of a performance at a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, a source told JTA.
Wonder’s representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a U.N. “Messenger of Peace,” according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder’s representatives and organizers of the event.
Wonder was scheduled to headline the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces annual gala in Los Angeles on Dec. 6. The event raises millions of dollars annually to support the Israeli military.
An official of Friends of the IDF, reached at its Los Angeles office, had no comment. Wonder’s agent at Creative Artists Agency did not return a request for comment.
The spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General also had no comment on the matter. The United Nations does not usually impose restrictions on its goodwill representatives. Wonder most recently performed at a U.N. concert commemoratiing its 67th anniversary.
Wonder had come under intense social media pressure to pull out of the event. An online petition calling on him to cancel his performance had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.
The petition was launched more than a day ago on the change.org website.
“You were arrested in 1985 protesting South African Apartheid, now we ask you: please remember that apartheid is apartheid, whether it comes from White Afrikaaner settlers of South Africa or from Jewish Israelis in Israel,” the petition reads. “Desmond Tutu has recognized that Israel’s Apartheid is worse than South Africa’s – will you stand with us against apartheid and cancel your performance at the IDF fundraiser.”
A second petition, launched by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, calls on Wonder to “(p)lease continue your legacy of speaking out for the oppressed. Please be a ‘full-time lover’ of justice by standing on the right side of history and canceling your performance for the Israeli army.”
Wonder performed at a 1998 gala honoring Israel’s 50th anniversary.
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-24
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@Rollysas · 14 hours ago
Why should Stevie Wonder help if all the Hollywood Jews don't.The only person to come out in support of Israel is the Righteous Gentile,John Voight .
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2 replies · active 5 hours ago
+55
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couchtripper · 14 hours ago
excellent - fund raising for terrorists is never a good idea.
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5 replies · active 7 hours ago
-66
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dvorim25 · 14 hours ago
The view that Israel is an apartheid Statevis bull****. The claim that it iscworsevthan South Afrikais a kind of blood libel.
By going along with these bigots Wonder has joined the antisemitic bigots who attack Jews.
I will never again be able to buy or even listen to this Jew hater's music.
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5 replies · active 10 hours ago
+36
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Cristina Rosa · 13 hours ago
bds! bds! no money for terrorists . god bless stevie wonder
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5 replies · active 7 hours ago
-46
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Tim Rik · 13 hours ago
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7 replies · active 6 hours ago
+41
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nowarnomore · 13 hours ago
Good for Stevie Wonder - a righeous man.
BTW I am sick and tired of those who do not like what Israel is doing being called "anti-Semitic" or Jew haters." I am sick of those who use the tired old charge of "blood libel." Those tired old canards are the last refuge of those who cannot stand the truth of what Israel is and has been doing and who are trying to defend the indefensible.
I guess that dvorim25 didn't think that Stevie Wonder was a "Jew hater" when he performed at another benefit for Israel. Wonder is not a "jew hater" and to call him that proves the sickness of your argument.
I also wonder why these people in LA are not raising money for the vets of the US military. Thousands of our vets are homeless. thousands maimed by our wars, thousands suffering from PTSD. And who are these people in LA raising money for? The military of a foreign country. .How sad.
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6 replies · active 6 hours ago
-48
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Tim Rik · 13 hours ago
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2 replies · active 3 hours ago
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@Rollysas · 13 hours ago
You Jewish liberals should get your wake up call.These people hate Israel and whether or not you like it they hate Jews too.Welcome to reality! As for Stevie Wonder ...just rearrange the furniture .
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+13
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Wdi Hussein · 12 hours ago
even a blind man can SEE the unjustice and racist matters irael stands for.
now its for the rest off the "blind" world to see!!
OPEN UR EYES BEFORE YOU DIE!!
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1 reply · active 6 hours ago
-21
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Matthew Spencer-Kociol · 12 hours ago
I'm sure Stevie Wonder is well intentioned, but hyperbolic statements like "Israeli Apartheid is worse than South African Apartheid" is absurd.
a·part·heid/əˈpärtˌ(h)āt/
Noun:
(in South Africa) A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.
Segregation in other contexts.
Arabs in Israel can vote and run for office and their are Arabs in Israeli Parliament. Palestinians are not a race, but a separate nationality in Israeli territory, and they vote for their own political leadership, the Palestinian Territory. How can people say Israel is apartheid and turn around and talk about how Hamas was democratically elected? They have their own political system in anticipation of gaining a state. It's not segregation.
This whole conflict exploits ignorance and it sickens me.
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7 replies · active 3 hours ago
-15
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Berti Ducks · 11 hours ago
Hi Stevie,
- for long I liked your music, I liked your appearance in Dortmund 1980, & I was an angry man a g a i n s t ISRAEL for 2 5 years, because I was d e s i n f o r m a t e d by my leftist friends. - In the 90th I changed into being a FRIEND of ISRAEL, because I red how the not inversed TRUTH is on ISRAELs side, while the dominand l e f t i s t and saudi or oil corrupted ex-presidents like Carter colaborate with the followers of nazi-islam followers Arafat & Muslembrotherhoodies etc. :
Look here the connections
www.tellTheChildrenTheTruth.com or
www.photospalestine.free.fr , - a project what organized after palestine colaboration in nazigerman Holocaust by KGB lead soviet antisemite policy in Middle East ! - So I as an german christian and antifascist greet and welcome you for playing Your music for the friends of I.D.F. !
"Apartheid state" ISRAEL is a infamous and in origin KGB orchestrated history inversersion based antiwest and antisemite strategy ! - Stevi Wonder - HOLD ON against THE BIG LIE !
The invention of "palestine" as a people and nation also is an nazi islamic and after 45 KGB coproduction against freedom and shelter of the jews and western world !. - Stevie - HOLD ON !
"Palestine(neans)" is NO race, was NO nation & NO state , - but was an islam antisemite political project from the beginning. - But until now it failed on bloody costs of arabs and jews while cynical calculated by their leader with modern BLOODlibels and photos by their KGB and nazi trained leaders ! - > see SS Moh. Amin al-Hussaini or SS Johann von Leers , possibly on Wikipedia , - also here the story of on left switched antisemitism against ISRAEL
http://jcpa.org/article/the-big-lie-and-the-media...
The Big Lie and the Media War Against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality
jcpa.org
From the 1960s, inversion of truth and reality has been one the most favored propaganda methods of Israel’s adversaries. One of its most frequent expressions has been the accusation that the Jewish...
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2 replies · active 3 hours ago
-7
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Jeff Klives · 11 hours ago
A lot of the posts here really depress me. ____
The IDF are not terrorists. ____
A person can be against some of Israel's policies and not be anti-semitic.____
I'd love there to be negotations where a Palestinian state is established that peacefully co-exists with Israel that serves as a homeland for the Jewish people. I don't see that happeneing with the current political enrivorment on either side right now. I am against Israel taking steps to make it harder to achieve the two state solution when the time does come when leaders and the people from both states are ready to negotaite for two states for two people. ____
I am not sure how Stevie Wonder canceling his performance does much other than decrease the amount of funds raised the IDF. Even with the loss of the expected funds, I still think the IDF will still be able to defend Israel. ____ __ ______
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3 replies · active 4 hours ago
-11
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Tiger71 · 11 hours ago
I am proud being a supporter of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). As a former U.S. Army officer I am also very proud of being a supporter of the State of Israel. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is the only country that provides for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom from fear. As an American of the Jewish faith, I am very proud of the State of Israel. Hamas is an anti-Semitic organization that is anti-Israel, terrorist and basically a Nazi organization. Article 7 of the Hamas Charter calls for the killing (extermination) of ALL Jews.
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3 replies · active 3 hours ago
+1
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@forwardexposed · 9 hours ago
I bet the Jewish Daily Forward would boycott the IDF as well .
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3 replies · active 3 hours ago
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@forwardexposed · 9 hours ago
thejewishforwardexposed.wordpress.com
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-1
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Fige Bornu · 6 hours ago
Stevie Wonder is owned by Israel and their fake Jews.
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-3
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SCREW SOCIALISM · 5 hours ago
The FAKE "anti-war" cult is owned by Moscow and their fake "progressives".
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Peter Franzen · 27 minutes ago
Israel is a terrorist state. Their agents carry out extra-judicial killings and atrocities all over the world.
The IDF target and kill unarmed peace activists and Palestinian women children and babies.
They destroy Palestinian homes, water supplies and agriculture such as olive groves.
Thanks to Israel and the IDF Gaza is the biggest concentration camp in the world with 1,700,000 inmates.
They imprison and torture people for years without trial.
They will do anything to obstruct the Palestinians from gaining their land and property back.
Well done to Stevie Wonder for his “conversion on the road to Damascus."
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+1
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Zubelee · 6 minutes ago
The ugly female cows and eunuch men that make up BDS are nobodies for the most part people with nominal education.They are near do wells in all their endeavors
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Topic: Stevie Wonder backs out of pro Israel concert (Read 1120 times)