• Ilandar@aussie.zone
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    3 months ago

    One that is concerned about a public backlash. I’m not sure if you’re from Australia, but the community is very divided here over this issue. It’s also an issue that tends to be divided by age groups, with older people being more likely to support Israel’s actions or see criticism of Israel as anti-semitism. Classical concert audiences tend to be quite old. With this context in mind, I suspect the MSO received a handful of complaints and incorrectly assumed this position would be less inflammatory. It’s possible that it actually is within their immediate audience, but the problem with making a big public statement like they’ve done is that it automatically puts you on a "side’ in this heated and highly polarised environment.

    They should have just spoken to the soloist privately and explained their concerns to him prior to the next concert, instead of turning it into a big controversy. As triggered as some people may have been by the introduction, it wouldn’t have been enough to turn this into a real controversy the way it has become since they cancelled the concert. Like this news story is not actually anywhere near important enough to make World News communities and get outraged replies from foreigners who had never even heard of the MSO before this. It’s the story’s connection to the situation in Gaza that is the big issue here, and deliberately involving themselves in that was a massive PR mistake.

    • Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      but the community is very divided here over this issue

      Noo it’s not mate, this isn’t America. The government supports Israel, but the people clearly favour Palestine.