Guardian errs on Brian Eno boycott story – Batsheva in Italy evidently not funded by embassy

A British musician (and anti-Israel activist) named Brian Eno denied permission for the Israeli dance company Batsheva to continue using his music for a series of performances in Italy, the Guardian reported yesterday in a Sept. 7th article by their Jerusalem correspondent Peter Beaumont.

guardian-ad-batsheva

Of course, nobody familiar with Eno’s hatred towards Israel would be surprised by his decision to boycott Batsheva. However, there was one element of the Guardian article which caught our eye – the claim that the Israeli embassy sponsored the dance performance, which represents the main reason cited by Eno in denying them permission to use his music.

First, there’s this in the strapline:

eno

Then, in the opening paragraph:

The composer and producer Brian Eno has denied permission for one of Israel’s most critically acclaimed dance companies to continue using his music for a series of performances in Italy after he discovered that the Israeli embassy was sponsoring the event.

Then, five paragraphs down:

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the dance piece using Eno’s music – entitled Humus – was due to be performed on Tuesday at the TorinoDanza festival at the Teatro Regio in Turin, but was withdrawn after Eno was made aware of the Israeli embassy sponsorship. His name has been removed from the festival’s website.

Finally, there’s this, twelve paragraphs down:

“To my understanding, the Israeli embassy (and therefore the Israeli government) will be sponsoring the upcoming performances, and, given that I’ve been supporting the BDS campaign for several years now, this is an unacceptable prospect for me.

However, this is not true, according to Batsheva, per a phone conversation and email exchange we had with spokeswoman Noa Ron.

Here’s a screenshot of her email to us about an hour ago:

noa
(See referenced letter to Mr. Eno from Batsheva, here: brian-eno-pr-eng-september-8-2016.)

Tellingly, we’ve learned that Beaumont never contacted Batsheva for a comment prior to publishing his story.

We’ve contacted the Guardian asking for a correction.

We’ve also tweeted Mr. Eno, informing him that his assertion evidently was not true.

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