Tag: West Bank/Gaza Strip

Central Park Pride Concert Cancelled Over “Security Concerns” About Singer Accused Of Being Anti-Israel

Central Park Pride Concert Cancelled Over “Security Concerns” About Singer Accused Of Being Anti-Israel

Pride events are very expensive to put on.   Most of the cost is security and insurance.  The more threats from haters, normally fundamentalist religious people, the more security needed and the more costly insurance is.  It is another weapon the haters of the LGBTQ+ community have learned to use to shut down events for people they hate.  So much for freedoms these people keep demanding for themselves but want to deny to others.   Hugs

 

May 7, 2025

New York City’s NBC affiliate reports:

Kehlani ‘s planned concert in Central Park next month has been canceled after New York City’s mayor raised security concerns about the R&B star’s performance during Pride month, organizers announced Monday.

The “After Hours” singer had been set to headline a June 26 concert billed as “Pride with Kehlani” at the Manhattan park as part of SummerStage, an annual slate of free concerts at parks across the city.

But organizers, in their announcement, cited concerns from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration about the “controversy surrounding Cornell University’s decision to cancel Kehlani’s concert at the University, as well as security demands in Central Park and throughout the City for other Pride events during that same period.”

The Cornell Sun reports:

Following the April 10 announcement of Kehlani as the original Slope Day headliner, some students and parents criticized the artist’s anti-Israel rhetoric and social media presence. Cornellians for Israel also launched a petition against the selection of Kehlani as the Slope Day headliner that accumulated over 5,000 signatures.

Cornell revoked Kehlani’s invitation to headline Slope Day over what President Michael Kotlikoff labeled “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”

But the cancellation sparked criticism from student groups about freedom of speech and institutional neutrality. The Community Slope Day Instagram account urged students to “boycott Slope Day,” writing that Kehlani’s “opposition to the genocide in Palestine isn’t hateful” and that the decision was made “without representative input of the student body.”

It doesn’t appear that Kehlani has any affiliation with NYC Pride itself. The cult is celebrating the cancellation. The recent single below has 32 million views on YouTube.

Peace & Justice History for 1/12

January 12, 1954
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced U.S. would go beyond of President Harry Truman’s doctrine of “containing Communism” for a new policy: “. . . there is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty landpower of the Communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive [nuclear] retaliatory power.”
More on Massive Retaliatory Action (We might check in on this in light of recent Republican rhetoric; some history need not be made nor repeated -A.)
January 12, 1957
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African-American clergymen who wanted to press for civil rights long denied members of their community.

Sixty black ministers from ten states went to Atlanta, Georgia, to set up the coordinating group.
They elected King as its first president, with the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy as treasurer.
SCLC history 
January 12, 1962
Federal workers were guaranteed the the right to join unions and bargain collectively after President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988.“Employees of the Federal Government shall have, and shall be protected in the exercise of, the right, freely and without feel of penalty or reprisal, to form, join and assist any employee organization or to refrain from any such activity.”
Eventually, regulation of labor-management relations in the federal government was codified under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

President Kennedy signing executive order
January 12, 1971
Reverend Philip F. Berrigan, founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship anti-Vietnam War organization, was indicted along with five others on charges of conspiring to kidnap National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, and to bomb the tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, D.C. They became known as the Harrisburg Seven.

At the time, Berrigan was serving a six-year sentence at a federal prison in Connecticut with his brother, Daniel, for their destruction of military draft records in Maryland during 1967-68. The Berrigans’ ethic of nonviolence towards others made the charges questionable, and eventually all six were acquitted of the conspiracy charges.
Phil Berrigan and Elisabeth McAllister, later his wife, were ultimately convicted and sentenced on just one count of smuggling mail out of a federal penitentiary, the only person in history to be prosecuted on such a charge.
More about Philip Berrigan 
The Harrisburg Seven

January 12, 1971

“All in the Family” premiered on CBS-TV. The sitcom focused on the major social and political issues of the day such as racism, war, homosexuality and the role of women.
In-depth background on the show 
January 12, 1987
Twenty West German judges were arrested for blockading the U.S. Air Force base at Mutlangen, West Germany where Pershing II nuclear-armed cruise missiles were deployed.
Judge Ulf Panzer stated:
“Fifty years ago, during the time of Nazi fascism, we judges and prosecutors allegedly’did not know anything.’ By closing our eyes and ears, our hearts and minds, we became a docile instrument of suppression, and many judges committed cruel crimes under the cloak of the law. We have been guilty of complicity. Today we are on the way to becoming guilty again, to being abused again.
By our passivity, but also by applying laws, we legitimize terror: nuclear terror.Today we do know…”
More on “Judges and Prosecutors for Peace” 
January 12, 1991

The United States Congress voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq to end its occupation of Kuwait. House: 250-183; Senate: 52-47.
The military, political and diplomatic situation at the time 
January 12, 2002
The “Refusenik” movement began when 53 Israeli soldiers signed an ad refusing to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
Their letter concluded:
• We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
• We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

• The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.
[The term originally referred to Jews in the Soviet Union who had applied to emigrate but were delayed or refused by the Communist government, in one case for more than 22 years.]
Video interview with Yonatan Shapira, refusenik and former captain in the Israeli Air Force 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january12