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Last update - 14:35 25/04/2009
Flemish Jews irked by state-funded `anti-Israel` Samson opera
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haarez Correspondent
Tags: Belgium, Jewish World 

Prominent figures from the Jewish community in Belgium and Israel have harshly criticized the Flemish Opera for staging what they regard as an anti-Israeli, political event disguised as a première. The contested show was created by two Israelis.

The production of Samson and Delilah is scheduled to premiere Tuesday, along with a political debate. The community has condemned the opera ? directed by Omri Nitzan and Amir Nizar Zuabi - for dressing the Philistine conquerors in Western clothing while Hebrew fighters like Samson wear Arab clothes.

Samson, who lived in the 11th century BCE, was a partisan living under occupation of the Philistines ? a powerful and technologically-advanced people of European roots. The bible says he died in Philistine hands while killing many of his captors.
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Zuabi and Nitzan's reverse-role adaptation of his love story with a Philistine woman leads Samson to become "history's first shaheed" (or martyr, in the Islamic tradition), the say. "Samson is a shaheed, and Delilah is his lover from the enemy camp," the directors explained.

"This isn't the first time public Flemish culture institutions stage unabashedly anti-Israel events," David Lowy, founder of the JOBI group for Belgian youth in Israel, told Haaretz. "Israel is misunderstood in Belgium and distorting bible stories will only compound this. The analogy's ludicrous and state-funded bodies mustn't help it."

Guido Joris from the Dutch-language Jewish-affairs newspaper Joods Actueel condemned the event's political character, and a planned screening of a film calling Israel's 2002 military operation in the West Bank a "blood bath" at the event.

The paper also criticized the involvement of a state-funded institution in the show. "I imagine we are in store for Israeli flags burned, as we've seen in the past in Belgium," Joris said.

Nitzan insists that the opera's political messages are not an attempt to jump on Europe's pro-Palestinian bandwagon. A spokesperson from Flanders Opera said his institution isn't anti-Israeli and that the criticism is "premature," adding: "We may argue about the Mideast conflict, but there will be no flag burning."


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      1.   one sided 16:15  |  mich 25/04/09
      2.   oh really? 16:50  |  edgar 25/04/09
      3.   Palestinian Samson 17:02  |  Jeep 25/04/09
      4.   Israeli Salah ad-Din? 17:03  |  msh 25/04/09
      5.   But anti-Arab South Park is OK? 17:39  |  W 25/04/09
      6.   Samson WAS a suicide terrorist. 17:50  |  Michael 25/04/09
      7.   Samson opera 17:56  |  Leuven 25/04/09
      8.   Who Samson actually was 18:11  |  Jackie 25/04/09
      9.   The irony would be that it`s not all that much of a distortion 19:13  |  Colin Wright 25/04/09
      10.   Samson was a Jew living in Gaza 19:38  |  Ahab 25/04/09
      11.   Storm in teacup 20:52  |  sh 25/04/09
      12.   Did Nitzan read the Biblical account before . . . 20:59  |  Zev Davis 25/04/09
      13.   To Jeep Geneva 21:28  |  Freddy 25/04/09
      14.   Samson enlightened me. 22:19  |  Bandar Michaels 25/04/09
      15.   #2 Edgar, "Israel is misunderstood in Belgium." 22:34  |  Israeli Obeserver 25/04/09
      16.   Aretificial state of Belgium ,who cares about goings on there 23:08  |  Absolute Sweden 25/04/09
      17.   The boy who cried "wolf" 23:14  |  Janice 25/04/09
      18.   Samson was tortured,blinded and led to arena "to make sport" for 23:26  |  Absolute Sweden 25/04/09
      19.   Couple of provincial Isarelis want to be liked in Europe 23:50  |  17 25/04/09
      20.   Colin... 00:12  |  Michael 26/04/09
      21.   edgar - Belgians get everything wrong 00:47  |  David israel 26/04/09
      22.   WRIGHT 65% of Israeli Jews were born in Israel.European?? 01:08  |  PETER SM 26/04/09
      23.   MICHAEL ignorance.Samson did not target he was brought there to 01:10  |  PETER SM 26/04/09
      24.   Flemish Jews irked by state-funded `anti-Israel` Samson opera 01:33  |  david 26/04/09
      25.   BMICHAELS Your own current covenant calls you Arabs 01:47  |  PETER SM 26/04/09
      26.   Written by Israelis? 01:50  |  Motic 26/04/09
      27.   Samson in Arab Cloth/11th century BCE, 02:08  |  Confused 26/04/09
      28.   If Abraham Lincoln and Richard the Lion-Heart have become Muslims 03:55  |  Simha 26/04/09
      29.   $18 - Written by an Arab and his Jewish alibi -both Israelis 04:08  |  Simha 26/04/09
      30.   #2 edgar , 04:49  |  TOMY 26/04/09
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