Israel apologizes for turning the legendary band away

By Matthew B. Zeidman

JERUSALEM (Hollywood Today) 8/28/08 – Could you imagine being the guy that turned down the Beatles playing in your town? Yet for Israeli Beatles fans, it’s better late than never.  Forty-three years after an alleged fight between concert promoters kept the Fab Four from visiting the Middle Eastern nation, former band member Paul McCartney has accepted an invitation from Israel’s London embassy to make up for his band’s missed gig.

“Paul McCartney holds true the key principals of friendship—loyalty and respect—and the ‘Friendship First’ concert is an opportunity for people to celebrate these values whilst having a memorable night of fun and rock n’ roll,” read a statement released on McCartney’s Web site Wednesday.

McCartney, as well as the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr, were sent an invitation earlier in the year by Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, asking them to perform and lamenting that his country “missed a chance to learn from the most influential musicians of the decade.”  Starr has not yet responded to the letter.

Though it was commonly believed government censorship kept away the wildly popular foursome, Israeli newspaper Haaretz ran a story Monday, claiming a promoter who had turned down the Beatles in 1962 became jealous when a second businessman booked the band in 1965 and manipulated government officials into withholding funds necessary to finalize the show.

“He said it is a lousy group and will corrupt the spirit of the wonderful, brilliant, pure Israeli youngsters,” Yossi Sarid, son of an Education and Culture Ministry official involved in the decades-old scandal, told the newspaper.  “He exploited their ignorance.”

According to McCartney’s Web site, he and his other musical group, Wings, were scheduled to perform in Israel in the late 1970s, but were forced to cancel because of an unspecified problem with the venue.

As for the guy that turned down a Beatles concert? His ticket stubs would be worth more now on eBay than he makes at the kibbutz he may have been banished to.