Leonard Cohen Performs Sold-Out Show in Israel
Leonard Cohen rose to the stage of the Ramat Gan stadium Wednesday night to perform in front of an Israeli audience that had been waiting for this moment for 30 years. Tickets were sold out mere hours after going on sale. Some 47,000 fans showed up to the concert — some of them in black fedoras, as a tribute to the singer.
Despite international protest calling upon Cohen to boycott Israel, the artist stood his ground and decided that all proceeds from the show will go to organizations that promote peace. “There are a lot of people who don’t want us here, and anything done here invites controversy,” Cohen’s manager, Robert Kory, told The Associated Press. “But we believe freedom of speech is very, very important.”
Most of the money will go to the Parents Circle, a joint Israeli-Palestinian group of bereaved parents that helps families from both sides who lost loved ones in the conflict.
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