On Wednesday, the Anglican Archbishop called to cancel the opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ that the Cape Town Opera Company was scheduled to perform in Israel next month.Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said that it would be ‘unconscionable’ for the Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel while millions of people living in the Palestinian territories are being denied access to culture and education. In his opinion, the opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ has a ‘universal message of nondiscrimination,’ which is in complete contradiction to the behavior of Israel toward Palestinians.
Tutu also claimed that the situation of the Palestinians is like South Africa under Apartheid. He said, ‘Israel is luring international artists to Tel Aviv to advance a false claim to being a civilized democracy.’
However, the opera company insisted that it would go ahead with next month’s tour of the American classic ‘Porgy and Bess’. Haaretz reported that the opera company’s managing director Michael Williams said, ‘the opera would not take a political position and cut cultural ties with Israel or the Palestinian territory.’
