Written by Yarden Uriel
 
  • In which country there's a "John Lennon peace forest"?
  • In which country one radio station aired a 60 chapters radio series telling the Beatles full story long before the launch
    •   of the Anthology multi-project?
  • In which country there's a Parliament member who collects Beatles bootlegs?
    •  
      Strange as it seems, the answer to all these questions is one - "Israel", a country that is better known for the headlines it makes in the politic sections of the newspapers. The Beatles are very popular in Israel. You can meet Beatles fans everywhere. Beatles graffitis in the streets of Tel-Aviv, radio stations are playing Beatles bootlegs (illegal, but sounds great) and as mentioned, there's even a Parliament member, Moodi Zandberg, who collects Beatles bootlegs. But things weren't like this all the time.
      In the first half of the 1960's, before the famous six days war, Israel was a typical example of what happen in under-siege conditions.
      Surrounded by enemies, geographically isolated from the western world and drowning in its own financial problems, Israel wasn't open such as other cultures to the influences of the outer world.
      At this time, when Beatlemania swept the world, Israel was like a side observer that didn't take part in the actual game. People read about the Beatles in the newspapers.
      Few of the band's hits even found their ways to the radio stations (there weren't TV services yet), mostly Radio Ramalla, an Arab station which played a lot of western pop music and actually had the same effect over Israelis as Radio Luxemburg over the British.
      In such circumstances there was no logical reason for the Beatles to play in Israel, but in 1964, in the middle of all the Beatlemania mess, one man - an Israeli promoter named Yacov Ori - had other ideas about this point.
      Ori realized that the Beatles had a Jewish manager. Soon after, he found that Brian Epstein's mother, Queenie (Malkah in Hebrew), had relatives in Israel, and from that point, persuading Brian to agree to bring the Beatles to Israel in September, in better terms that other promoters usually got, was easy.
      Yacov Ori got Brian's approval in early March, 1964. But there was one problem. Israel was short of foreign currency and had a strict supervision on every dollar that went out. So Yacov Ori couldn't get the foreign money to pay NEMS, who wasn't interested in the local money - the Israeli lira. But there was a possible solution. Ori made an official application to a governmental commitee whos only function was to decide which foreign artist should be given those rare dollars and which shouldn't.
      A week later, the members of the commitee decided that too many artists were invited to Israel anyway at the time Ori planned to bring the Beatles, and since they felt the band didn't stand on a high cultural and artistic level and had a bad influence over the youth, the decision was made: no money should be given to the Beatles from the government side.
      Yacov Ori didn't have any choice. He couldn't get the money by himself, and since Brian didn't show any interest in Israeli money or goods, there wasn't a way to make a deal.
      Through the years, the story got a different direction and made it seems like a totalitarian country that didn't allow The Beatles to get in.
      Since then, no Beatle ever appeared in Israel. In 1979, Wings accepted an invitation to come for few concerts and dates were secured in Tel-Aviv for July or August, but a strong disagreement between Harvey Golsmith, Wings' promoter, and the managment of what was then the only hall in Tel Aviv that could host such rock concerts, forced
    Goldsmith to cancel the dates.
      Since then many changes had been made in Israel, which became a regular stop for many touring rock stars like David Bowie, R.E.M, Bob Dylan, Guns and Roses, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Brian Adams and many others. Beatles fans are still waiting for at least one of their idols, but in the meantime, as they usually say - there's always London.
     
     
      Yarden Uriel is the author of two Israeli books: The Beatles - The Early Years (1993) and The Beatles - The Way Up (1996).
     
     
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