On a clear spring day, visitors to the Ayalon Valley would find it hard to believe they are standing on one of history's most fought over battlefields. The blood soaked soil where Israelites once fought Gibeonites, Crusaders fought Saracens and Israelis fought Jordanians is now covered by a carpet of flowers in full bloom. But in a few months, this picture-perfect scene of rusticity will once again be disturbed, not by battle cries but by guitar solos.
Last month, Pink Floyd cofounder Roger Waters announced he was relocating his June 22 concert from Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv to a chickpea field near the integrated Jewish-Arab community of Neve Shalom in the Ayalon Valley, to express his support for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. According to reports, the field will be cleared to make way for a massive kilometer-long stage, surrounded by television screens and six cranes operating special effects.
The Waters extravaganza is just one in a growing number of concerts by world-renowned performers like Ricky Martin, Sting, Depeche Mode, Black Eyed Peas and 50 Cent, scheduled to take place in Israel starting in June. The star-studded lineup marks the country's return to the international touring circuit, almost six years after it was relegated to the status of a no-go destination by the years-long eruption of violence with Palestinians, known as the Second, or Al-Aqsa, Intifada.
"What's impressive is that they chose to include Israel in their world tours at the height of their careers, and that will pave the way for more to come," says music journalist Tomer Ran on the significance of the upcoming concerts.
According to veteran promoter Shuki Weiss, the man behind the arrival of Waters, Black Eyed Peas and Depeche Mode, performers are returning due to the combined improvement in Israel's national security and diplomatic standing as a result of the disengagement plan, which saw the country pull out of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank last August.
But in Weiss' opinion, the most important factor in Israel's readmission to the touring circuit took place not in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Gaza, but in New York, London and Madrid.
"I think the main reason [performing artists are returning] is because terrorism has spread globally and is now in everyone's backyard, so it doesn't make a difference whether you're performing in Israel or elsewhere," Weiss says. "And I think security in Israel is much better than anywhere else in the world and those who have come and performed here can vouch for that."
Still, as good as security in Israel may be, no one can guarantee the current calm will last. The April 17 suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv street, which killed 11 people and wounded dozens more, served as a painful reminder that the attacks that plagued the country for almost six years are far from being a thing of the past. A resurgence of violence inside Israel, a serious deterioration in the stability of one of its immediate neighbors or an air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities could mark the end for the planned concerts.
At a press conference announcing the arrival of Sting, 50 Cent and Ricky Martin, music promoter Marcel Abraham also addressed the security issue.
"One must hope the political situation will continue to be quiet and hope no dramatic developments will take place in the region," Abraham told reporters. "It seems like, at the moment, there is nothing to prevent artists from coming here."
As the summer approaches, Weiss, Abraham and the local music loving community will keep their fingers crossed, hoping this season of concerts marks a return to the days when Israel was a regular stop for major artists.
Beatles bust to 90s boom During the first years of its existence, Israel was considered a cultural backwater and didn't attract visits by major foreign performers.
The first attempt to bring a chart-topping band came in the mid-60s, when a local music promoter asked Beatles manager Brian Epstein to make Israel a venue on their world tour. Legend has it Epstein's Jewish mother, Esther, was enlisted to persuade her son to secure a Fab Four concert date. After Epstein gave the go-ahead, only one obstacle still remained: A government okay that never came on the grounds there were already too many foreign bands performing in Israel that summer.
For years to come, the Beatles fiasco scared off promoters and band managers from trying to bring their clients to the holy land. Local music lovers had to go abroad to see their pop idols or be content with worshipping them from afar. Still, during those years, Israel did leave its stamp on popular music, though rather circuitously. KISS lead singer, Gene Simmons (formerly Chaim Veitz) and Red Hot Chili Peppers cofounder, the late Hillel Slovak, were both born in Haifa; kibbutz old timers in the north of the country still speak fondly of the days when Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan visited their communities and played guitar on their manicured communal lawns.
A few musicians from abroad began to hold concerts in Israel during the 80s, but around the time of the 1993 Oslo Accords, when peace in the Middle East seemed to be at hand, the trickle suddenly turned into a flood. Over the next few years, Hayarkon Park played host to massive concerts by the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, U2, REM, Guns 'N Roses and Prodigy, all at the peak of popularity, drawing crowds of well over 100,000 people.
Israelis now in their 20s and 30s, who were in their teens at the time, look back with fond memories.
"They were the first concerts I ever went to without my parents," Hila Lothan, a 25-year-old university student who was 12 at the time, recalls. "My friend Hili and I had backstage passes to the Michael Jackson concert and I didn't take my VIP wristband off for a week."
In some instances, Israel was the first stop on the road to greater success. Thanks to heavy airplay of their song "Creep" on an Army Radio channel, Israel was the first country where Radiohead had a number one hit, long before they achieved similar popularity in either their native Britain or the United States.
"It was a very special time in music history," Ran says. "MTV began broadcasting in Israel, grunge was all the rage and the Hebrew-language music scene was thriving as well."
Then in 2000, the plug was pulled abruptly. As news of attacks carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers and IDF incursions into Gaza and the West Bank were broadcast across the world, mainstream performing artists declined to set aside dates for local shows.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers cancelled a Hayarkon Park gig in 2001, citing security worries. Not even a phone call by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, asking the band that had been co founded by a former Israeli (the aforementioned Slovak) to go ahead with the concert, could change their minds. As violence worsened, the unofficial ban on travel to Israel spread to include classical musicians, disc jockeys and sportsmen.
Hostilities reached a peak in the spring of 2002, when IDF forces launched Operation Defensive Shield and entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank and Gaza following a series of deadly suicide attacks by Palestinian militants.
National morale reached a nadir that spring, as local authorities cancelled the majority of Independence Day public celebrations, citing fears for personal security. Only three years after the millennial visits of Radiohead, Massive Attack and Suede, the violence grew to such levels that even Israeli musicians were reluctant to appear on stage.
Withdrawal and revival Things started to turn around after Ariel Sharon announced the disengagement plan. After the withdrawal was carried out in August 2005, a number of international performer artists, such as indie rock band Mercury Rev and 80s icons Scorpions and Phil Collins, staged successful concerts in Tel Aviv, signaling to their fellow rockers that it was safe, and economically sound, to return.
Music promoter Weiss believes Collins' visit was particularly influential in that respect.
"His visit received good press coverage abroad and he himself paid us good service when he spoke - quite a lot - about Israel and his concert," Weiss says.
In December 2005, Depeche Mode became the first major band to announce its intention to perform in Israel. With the improvement in security and an economic boom firmly established, newspapers heralded the performance as a final confirmation that the better times were back. The excitement was marred only by claims of exorbitant prices, with tickets costing between 330 and over 500 shekels.
Nonetheless, diehard fans say they will pay whatever it takes to see their favorite bands perform live.
"I would have been willing to mortgage my house to buy a Depeche Mode ticket; that is, if I owned a house," says Amir Shiloh, a 28-year-old Tel Aviv University student and music lover. "I don't think the ticket prices are unreasonable because that's what concert tickets cost elsewhere. I mean, 360 shekels a ticket is 80 dollars, and that's what it takes to cover the costs of bringing such a performer to Israel."
Some fans, however, are quick to point out that the average Israeli earns less than half of what an American does. In terms of expense related to income, a NIS 360 Depeche Mode concert ticket would cost an American about 150 dollars.
Weiss stands by his decision, saying the tickets costliness are due to larger market considerations.
"About seven years ago, the euro was introduced to Europe and prices have gone up," Weiss explains. "Tickets there cost 80, 100 or 120 euro, and Israel isn't getting any discounts. We simply have to pay European prices."
Most Israelis seem to accept Weiss' argument. With about a month to go before show time, over 35,000 tickets have been sold for Waters' concert, almost 30,000 for Depeche Mode and some 9,000 for Black Eyed Peas - the latter in a period of only four days.
But the debate whether ticket prices are justifiable or not may end up being purely academic. On March 23, U.S. pop star Kelly Clarkson backed out of a Tel Aviv concert at the last minute, exposing the vulnerability of the re-emergent music scene.
Though Clarkson's managers said the American Idol winner's cancellation was unrelated to security concerns, the Israeli public and media - used to hearing similar excuses for years - reacted skeptically.
Music journalist Ran, however, thinks the Clarkson cancellation was a one-off event.
"These things happen and you hear about them all the time in the news," Ran says. "When I interviewed Kelly Clarkson she sounded very enthusiastic about coming to Israel, so I don't think she didn't come because of security reasons."
So you think the other concerts will take place as usual?
"As I wrote about Kelly Clarkson at the time, until she gets off the plane and eats a platter of Humus with me in Jaffa, I won't believe it. And she didn't. Still; I think the chances of all five concerts being cancelled are negligible. That's why I think - or hope, rather - they'll take place."
Another threat to the concerts taking place is the claim that the limited Israeli market isn't big enough to host so many performers in such a short period. After rumors spread of poor sales of advance tickets, Latin singer Ricky Martin was forced to call a press conference to deny reports he was canceling his performances.
Weiss is optimistic that his shows will take place as planned, though he does admit to slight anxiety.
"As a promoter, my job is to worry. I worry all the time, and I have good reasons to do so --not just about security. I have to make sure things happen. We have to make sure we do whatever's up to us," Weiss said.
He did, however, reiterate his conviction that this time the artists won't let down their fans.
"I hope and believe that the shows will take place."
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
