News Brief

The Zionist Organization of America protested a planned address by Barack Obama’s former pastor at an NAACP dinner. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. is slated to speak at the 53rd Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner organized by the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The ZOA called on the chapter to rescind the invitation, describing Wright in a statement as “anti-American, anti-white, anti-Israel.” The news release included a series of inflammatory quotations from Wright, beginning with the pastor’s infamous “God damn America” riff that became an issue in the presidential campaign when it was first aired last month. “Reverend Wright has challenged the nation, challenged our comfort zone and stimulated nationwide discussion on the issues of how we must move forward together as both a nation and a people,” said an NAACP news release announcing the dinner. “We look forward to his participation here in the city of Detroit.” In a letter to the Detroit branch president, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, ZOA President Morton Klein wrote that Wright’s “record of words and deeds does not challenge the nation — it defames it.”

A man carrying a Palestinian flag and shouting anti-Israeli slogans disrupted a concert by an Israeli singer in Tulsa, Spain.

The man was arrested by the police at Achinoam Nini’s weekend show but witnesses said the singer, visibly upset, had to be convinced by the crowd to return to her performance.

In 2002, a Nini performance in London was broken off after protesters burst onto the stage and took the microphone from the singer’s hands.

“There were close to 80 protestors outside who shouted slogans against us. They prepared pictures of Achinoam wearing a soldier’s helmet and other posters with slogans against Israel,” Nini’s producer Ofer Pesanzon told Y-net.

“They launched a war against Achinoam because she’s not afraid to say what she thinks, and therefore she represents Israel in their eyes. I tried talking to them, but I could tell they had been brainwashed, it was impossible to communicate with them,” Pesanzon was told the Israeli Web site.

Nini’s seven shows in Spain were sold out weeks in advance.

“It’s a shame it had to happen, but it made me proud to be an Israeli. I hope that my next show would be at a peace concert of Israelis and Palestinians. This will prove to these demonstrators how wrong they are,” Nini was quoted in Y-net.