Toronto Star - "Leonard Cohen demonstration draws few people

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Toronto Star Article - Sun. Sept 13 - protest Israel date
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/694949

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Leonard Cohen demonstration draws few people
Montreal protesters denounce Tel Aviv concert
September 13, 2009
Jessica Murphy
The Canadian Press

MONTREAL–Controversy that has dogged songwriter Leonard Cohen over his upcoming performance in Tel Aviv reached his hometown of Montreal yesterday.

However, fewer than a dozen people showed up at a protest organized by a local pro-Palestinian group. They handed out pamphlets to passersby in front of Cohen's favourite Montreal haunt, a breakfast and bagel cafe.

"This action is a demand from Montreal society that Leonard Cohen does not play a show in Israel to lend credence and normalize the apartheid state," said spokesman Doug Smith. "It's not about him personally. This is a message to all artists."

Demonstrations have dogged the 74-year-old poet and singer during his world tour since he announced the Sept. 24 Tel Aviv date, and Amnesty International recently yanked support from the charity concert.

A concert scheduled in the West Bank city of Ramallah was also cancelled after becoming embroiled in the boycott campaign.

Smith contends Cohen's efforts to pacify critics by donating proceeds to peace groups and by performing in the West Bank "whitewash crimes of the Israeli state."

"No one's asking for those steps," Smith said. "Palestinians don't need friends, they need solid support and solidarity – actions that speak louder than words."

The campaign against Cohen's concert was spearheaded by a group of Palestinian academics calling for an international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel since 2004.

The Toronto International Film Festival is also embroiled in the uproar for featuring Tel Aviv in its inaugural City to City program.

But the boycott campaign doesn't seem to be finding traction.

Cohen's spokeswoman Tiffany Shipp said Friday there would be no comment on the Montreal protest but Robert Kory, Cohen's manager, told the Jerusalem Post in July that free speech was also a human right.

"When I talk to people calling for Leonard to boycott Israel, I ask them: `Why can't people have different approaches? Can't we respect each other and have a different way of addressing a common problem?'"