Sir, – Ballet Ireland has decided to drop a piece which involved an Israeli choreographer (“Ballet Ireland pulls dance piece from Dublin performance over Israeli links”, News, March 14th). The piece concerned is 25 years old and has nothing to do with the current Gaza offensive. This petty, spiteful act will do nothing to help a single Palestinian. It will, however, reinforce a sad truism: that Ireland is one of the most anti-Israel countries in the world, and many Irish people are happy to cross lines in relation to Israel almost no other western country would cross. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Kilkee,
Co Clare.
Sir, – As a former chairperson of Irish National Youth Ballet, it is deeply disturbing to read that Ballet Ireland, effectively the national ballet, funded by the Arts Council, has withdrawn a ballet that it was planning to show because it was choreographed by an Israeli. Anne Maher, the director of Ballet Ireland said, “We stand by the right to freedom of artistic expression, and despite our belief that art should not be drawn into politics, we feel the time is not right to be performing this work”. Activist group Apartheid Free Dance states that choreographer Ohad Naharin has received funding from the Israeli government and was in the IDF (all Israeli citizens except for Arab Israeli and a few other exceptions must serve in the IDF).
A simple thought experiment would see a Gazan choreographer in the same position being funded by a Hamas government, an Iranian by the Republican Guard-dominated government, a Russian by Putin, and on it goes.
If Ballet Ireland’s decision to pull the show is about timing then, by definition, it is dragging artistic decisions into politics. This cannot be the role of Government-funded art bodies as the decision discriminates against individuals based on their identity, ignoring the artistic merit of their work. That kind of censorship has a chilling effect on the cultural exchange of art and even thought itself, an act which only fuels a climate of increased racial tension.
Wagner, Degas and TS Eliot are towering figures in music, art and literature. They are also well-documented anti-Semites. As far as Jews are concerned, the time to combat anti-Semitism is always current. Should we ban the work of these artists too? – Yours, etc,
OLIVER SEARS,
Holocaust Awareness Ireland,
Dublin 2.