Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
Nancy held a press conference a few hours before her concert at the Radisson Sass in Amman, Jordan. As she was talking about her participation in the Jerash Festival and everything was going as planned, an Israeli Journalist from ‘ Yadiot Ahranot’ newspaper disrupted and asked Ajram a question. She asked Ajram about her Israeli fans and her relation toward them. Nancy seemed surprised to have an Israeli journalist present which tied her tongue. The Jordanian journalist intervened and asked for the Israeli journalist to be kicked out of the press conference.
The journalist was a blonde female and when she had requested to ask Nancy a question, she was offered to ask her question in English assuming that she did not speak Arabic. She had refused and stated that she spoke Arabic. She started talking with a broken Arabic accent, and said her name and the name of the newspaper that she is working for.
She started to praise Nancy Ajram and added that the Israeli Jews adored the lovely singer, yet she wanted to know what Ajram thought of the Arab/ Israelis who came to see her sing. Before the Israeli journalist could finish her question the Jordanian journalist became furious and requested the festival committee to kick her out.
The Israeli journalist obeyed orders and left the conference without making any fuss. The question was out of place at a time where the wound of the Lebanese people is still fresh from the attacks of the Israeli army on Lebanon last year. Due to her young age Nancy managed to stay calm and tried not to comment on anything that would backfire in her face.
Nancy’s manager Jiji Lamara said that if the Jordanian journalists haven’t intervened by having the Israeli journalist kicked out, the Lebanese singer Nancy would have left the press conference. On the other hand the festival committee made it clear that they did not know that an Israeli journalist was at the press conference. [Al Bawaba]
How did a Zionist journalist get into the country, get a press pass, go all the way to Jerash and manage to ask Nancy Ajram the most insensitive question about her Arab/Israeli fans at a press conference about her performance in a music festival in Jordan? I mean, what if the blonde Jew had a grenade in her purse, or even worse, more than one question written down in her notepad? I mean sure this time she left without making a fuss, and the only casualty was Nancy’s tongue getting tied (insert zinger here), but it could’ve been much, much worse.
Seriously, the worst thing about this story?
Al-Bawaba’s terrible writing.
Lord have mercy on my wavering soul.
go all the way to Jerash
I’m not sure the journalist went to Jerash too? The conference was in Amman (Radisson Sass) as mentioned in your post
Anyways, many people are not keen on normalizing relations with Israel. Not out of blind hatred, but Lebanon was bombarded for 33 days last year, emotions are still high, no apologies were offered.
The worst thing about this story?
Waiting for Nancy at the front door, only to find out that she used a back door (read article)
“The conference was in Amman (Radisson Sass) as mentioned in your post”
devil’s in the details 😉
leih heyeh amman immune to israelis?
She looks scaaaaary..
Ha, it’s bad because they literally translate articles from Arabic to English, and the original article in Arabic is too romantic and when it comes into English it just looks even worse. I don’t know why, but all during the whole thing, the word “Tongue-tied-shit” kept resonating in my head. HAHA. I also liked the part where the article reads: “She obeyed orders,” ok, so I have a dirty mind, but I immediately thought of an S&M dungeon or something.
It was wrong in the first place to write about this (simply because there is no story there, it’s just fluff), and it is wrong to kick the journalist out. I mean we already signed a peace treaty with Israel, that peace treaty contains over 35 levels of cooperation between the two countries. So, why are we all “shocked” to see an Israeli journalist in Amman? We signed a peace treaty for God’s sake. The most obvious outcome of a peace treaty, is for Israelis to come to Jordan, no?
**If you sign a peace treaty with a country, then abide by it. The Israeli has every right to attend and ask questions, she is here legally in the country and she was a journalist so whats the fuss all about eh? The Jordanian journalist is the one who should have been kicked out for causing a disturbance and for his/her uncivilized behavior** (end of sarcasm)
Wall ya rajol ma lagait ghair hal soora il mor3ibeh? 😛
I am a Jordanian, but im wondering,,,why kick the journalist out?? She only asked a question? Didnt sound like a bad one either?!? The writer sounds very racist in his tones, saying that though, im sure it would be hard for a jordanian journalist to attented an Isreali singers press conference in Tel Aviv lol
That is shameful! Why don’t we act in a civilized way?! If Nancy didn’t know how to answer such question, then it is her problem! We have a peace treaty with Israel and their Journalists are entitled to attend such events!
Israel is a bullying monster but a peace treaty is a peace treaty–if you don’t think Israelis should be allowed to enter the country, EXIT the f*cking accord. We sound like hypocrites if we take all the aid and prestige that comes with Israeli peace treaty but don’t want the actual consequence of Israelis coming to Jordan, spending money to see Petra, staying at Amman hotels, and interacting with local cultural and social life–and, *gasp*, actually attending events that are open to outsiders anyway. What, did she miss the “No Jews allowed” sign at the door? For that matter, did the municipal authorities suddenly take down the “No Jews allowed” signs everywhere when I was sleeping? Where did they go???
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. We like to criticize the Israelis for their flagrant disrespect for Arab lives and their sham “democracy.” Then we pull stunts like this and wonder why nobody outside our tiny kingdom sympathizes with our anger. IF we do not have peace with Israel, THEN we kick out the Israeli bastards. Jail them, interrogate them, kill them, whatever countries do when they are at war. IF we do have a formal peace with Israel, THEN the last thing we want is to alienate the peace partner by driving them away. Why the hell sign peace if we are not willing to abide by it with honor?
And no, Jordanians do not get this kind of shit in Israel, I have been myself. Yes, to be certain many Israelis are racist and they are not nice to you. I have no love for them. But I have never heard of a Jordanian journalist being forced to leave a conference in Tel Aviv or what not in which the focus of attention was placed on a foreign singer following a local concert, and the Jordanian journalist asks a question and then Israeli journalists yell at her to leave, followed by Israeli pundits criticizing how the hell an Arab cockroach got into their country, I mean come on, she could have had a suicide bomb in her purse
I agree with Pheras Hilal and others.
IMO this behaviour by those particular Jordanian journalists and the festival committee at Radisson is not the way to promote tourism to your beautiful country,Jordan
LOL I read about this last week actually, but it’s very funny how you used this old freaky picture of her 😀
kudos for the IDF 😀 Now if only olmert can raid zoom, melody and other vc channels and take haifa into custody as well I KNEW THE IDF COULD BE GOOD FOR SOMETHING 😀
“**If you sign a peace treaty with a country, then abide by it. The Israeli has every right to attend and ask questions, she is here legally in the country and she was a journalist so whats the fuss all about eh? The Jordanian journalist is the one who should have been kicked out for causing a disturbance and for his/her uncivilized behavior** (end of sarcasm)
” I never have been consulted or ask to vote on this so called peace treaty and neither the people of Jordan.
so no Markus,we did not signe to this pathetic “peace treaty”.
Alurdunialhur, actually our parliament signed the peace treaty. We are a democratic country. We elected them. They voiced people who elected them voices and signed the treaty!
Urduni Hurr,
Just b/c you do not agree w/ the peace treaty does not mean you are not represented by our king, allah yarhamuhu, who signed it for his people and our parliament that represents us. no this is not a perfect democracy but at the point that you say, “this law/treaty/act which my leaders signed does not apply to me because nobody asked for MY consent” then you have lost your mind. does that mean you can attack an israeli and not be jailed by jordanians because it violates a peace treaty you did not sign? did you not sign the new parties or press and publications laws, does that mean they do not apply to you either?
A message to the commenter named “Observer:”
I personally invite you to Israel to explain to some of our citizens how democracy works. I live here (in Tel Aviv) and hope to cancel one of them out with my vote.
The worst thing is her picture if you ask me …
Should we tell :
الموت للاسراییل………………؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟//
its semms arab people dont want to learn to respect
What if the “blonde Jew” had a grenade in her purse?? With all due respect, Israelis have yet to carry out suicide bombings… Usually, it’s the other way around
habib: i was being sarcastic…but now that you mention it, you’re right, i think israelis like more subtle ways of killing. like, you know, jets and tanks and those things that shoot bullets.
or poison 😀
Israelis are evil. There is no two ways about it. Scum of the earth. The ironic thing is that they are even worse than the Nazi’s who tortured them half a century ago.
Absolutely WRONG!!! to each and everyone of you humans!! Nancy, with all do of respect we (arabian people in west Jerusalem – Beit Hanina) looking for a better answer than that! what was the big deal?? we are arabs all over the world and it doesnt matter if were in Israel, USA or even in Alaska!! And to kick out a journalist like that is just pollitical views only! I live in THE MIDDLE of everything, i see whats going on whoi shoots who and who kidnapes who… we should all look back and see what we have and NOT what we dont have! Me and many more around here are verry pleased with the way we get treatd and with what we have.. here we all are israeli residents and proud ones too! but we have to stop it all.. it might not happen, but we can do the best. What would you preffer.. to live with what we have with no wars? or to live with less or nothing including wars?? take 2 minutes and think about it! as a proud Arabian im saying this!! wallak halas!!!
WHATS THE PROBLEM IF THEY SAW AN ISRAILI JOURNALIST IN AMMAN. I THOUGHT YOU MADE PEACE AGREEMENT. SO THERE IS NO PROBLEM FOR HER TO ASK ANY QUESTION TO NANCY.
That picture makes her look like she has a bad case of gas and is just about ready to burp!
“what if the Israeli journalist had a grenade in her purse” ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Who’s got the grenade in their purses???? YOU and your friends!
When will arab extremists stop killing others in the name of allah????????????
I just contributed to the blogs on the show throwing incident and feel I am repeating myself by insisting on the rights of speakers or performers to express themselves in a peaceful manner and the rights of writers and reporters to do the same, in the same peaceful manner. In a free and civilized society, if you have a good argument you can make it without fear, whereas repression indicates that your only effective response is supression of the superior argument whether it be from a political, religious, or any other standpoint.
Unfortunately, Peoples in Arab Countries are led by narrow minded institutions and community leaders, who prefere to say NO always. I am sure this mation needs another 100 years of defeats in order to reinter our modern History. Unfortunately Nancy Ajram and other singers and artists are impresoned in this very stupid stream.
Please replace Nancy’s pic with one better. She has thousands of better pics.
It’s very sad that Nancy Ajram did not reply to the question. Maybe her coming to Israel will be a making peace step. Peace can come with sports, music and culture of the two peoples, way before it will come from the leaders of the two sides.
Nancy come to Israel!
Not for nothing… But as I see it, as a Jew, Muslims and Jews need to fix their own internal differences… In the Jewish community there’s the internal turmoil between the Heredi and the rest of us Jews. While within Muslims there’s internal fights because one is Sunni and the other is Sufsim or Shi’a. It’s sooo easy to call each other monsters and killers… Truth is there’s murders going on within our own religious denominations… But noooooo… no one wants to talk about that… It’s easy just to call Israel killers… Of course because all Israelis are animals. Don’t some of you fkn people know that this thing has been going on for so long that Some Israelis just don’t care anymore… and the only attacks cross the border in all directions is because of extremists who are set to just destroy Jews… Open your eyes you ignorant fucks we’re all Semitic. As for the journalist… I think it was a bad idea to throw her out but there would have been a better way to phrase the question with a little discretion and sensitivity… Otherwise I really didn’t have a total problem with the question… instead of criticizing Jews and Muslims… If you a Muslim.. find a Jew and start a chain reaction of friendship and vice versa. It would be my dream to one day find a synagogue and a mosque across the street from each other and on Friday come out and being able to say good Shabbat or Salam to each other. Your insults and criticism just gives extremist on both sides of the line more fuel. Don’t let them have the control… Deaf ears to extremism and an extended arm to one another. What would Avram say about all this crap if he were alive now??? BTW… Jerusalem belongs to EVERYONE… We all share the same religious root weather we want to admit it or not… How about making that a neutral zone sooo everyone can enjoy that peace of land.
I am Jewish. Chilean jewish. My english is bad. But i hope yours understand: I loved Nancy Ajram music, and the rest lebanese pop-music movement.
I hope this incident shows that the power of culture crosses borders … and continents. When at home, here in Santiago de Chile, meet my good friends, Jews and others, we sometimes accompany Arab-descended friends. Can´t imagine as Mashi Hadi enjoyed dancing, or watching a DVD-pirate the movie Sukkar Banat or “Caramel”. We laugh, argue, rejoice for we are friends.
I look forward to the day that you can do the same. From here, from the southern and south corner of the world to know that there is always hope. And yes, when was the bumbling Israeli attack on Lebanon, as Jews were opposed and made our voices heard where it believed necessary. While we have no more than continue to enjoy Ajram.
Fraternal Greetings, Jorge.
nancy im jew!! and i prode to hear your amazing voice in my car.one day will come and all of you will wunderstand that we are jost a msimpole pepole.no body realy care frome poloitics thing. your govrement car onle on her mony .and our goverment too .
we realy love you in israel!!.
i by my self was in europe mant time in festival of najwa karem/ahlamramy arach/miryam fars . and if you dont know so gorge waddouf meat three time an israeli singer and enen sing with him and take a foto with him .
i by my self have a pictcre with ramy ayash and miryam fares .
love you all the israeli guy
I am an Israeli, I love her music. I agree our people are somehow rude, unlike the arab courtesy, but we long for peace. I hope I can travel to Beirut in my own car someday. It must be an incredible town. I understand the wounds anyway, I hope they heal soon and never reappear.
Some people here have written that Israeli”s meaning in reality Jews are the scum of the earth because not all Israeli’s are Jewish, 20% of the population are Arab/Israeli’s both Muslim and to a lesser degree Christians.
I don’t like Arabs because my family were forced to leave our Arab homeland, we were driven out through persecution, torture and murder just because we were Jews, therfore because the Arab armies didn’t succeed in destroying Israel at her inception and driving the Jews into the sea, those cowards took out their vengeance on us, the Jews of the Arab World making us stateless homeless refugees almost overnight. However I still wouldn’t treat any Arab to the sought of treatment that the Israeli woman journalist was subjected to, even though I had more reason to.