Why were The Beatles banned from Israel?
By the time of their 1964 tour, ‘Beatlemania’s dizzying global fever had struck such a universal hysteria around the world that The Beatles were pulled from Liverpool’s Cavern Club to embark on an Asia/Oceania tour in little over a year, playing several dates in Australia and New Zealand plus a bonus for Hong Kong. Whether to reinvigorate the state’s cultural sector, redirect youthful revolutionary passions, or inject a much-needed economic boost, you’d think the world’s nation-states were forming an orderly queue eager to nab the Fab Four in their pomp.
One country in the Middle East that rejected The Beatles’ presence was the state of Israel. Not long formed after dispossessing Palestinian communities and declaring independence from the British Mandate, the fledgling country had reluctantly allowed some international acts to play. Similar to East Germany’s Stasi or Apartheid South Africa’s zealous cultural censors, Israel’s own moral gatekeepers and official busybodies, the Interdepartmental Committee for Authorising the Importation of Foreign Artists were still traumatised at the sight of Israeli girls screaming at Cliff Richard’s 1963 Tel Aviv show.
Paranoid about the wave of teen sexual awakening ‘Beatlemania’ posed to the militaristic state’s stuffy discipline, the CAIFA’s 13-member body unanimously voted to reject the Fab Four’s corrupting influence on Israel’s young patriots, declaring in the committee resolution 691: “Resolved: Not to allow the request for fear that the performances by the Beatles are liable to have a negative influence on the youth.”
Education Minister Hanoch Rinot went further: “There is no musical or artistic experience here but a sensual display that arouses feelings of aggression replete with sexual stimuli.”
Allegedly, there had been negotiations to bring The Rhythm Beatles (as they were known in Hebrew) to Israel as early as 1962. Promoters Giora Godik and Yaakov Uri were approached by manager Brian Epstein’s mother, offering an Israeli slot on their upcoming tour. In one of the worst business decisions in music history, Godik opted for Richard and his Shadows instead. Smarting at his lack of foresight and angered that his partner Uri had secured The Beatles’ live exclusivity, Godik approached the Israeli Finance Committee in the Knesset and encouraged barring any promoter from hosting the group.
Financial policy at the time dictated that any use of significant levels of foreign currency would have required government approval. Coupled with suspicion that the promoters lacked the funds necessary for staging such an event, it’s possible the show would have been cancelled even if there had been a top-down thumbs up.
Jump to 2008, and Israel officially issued an apology, the then ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, presented a letter of contrition to John Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird. Paul McCartney eventually played Tel Aviv that September, and Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band played two dates in 2018. With growing controversy about playing the apartheid state in the aftermath of the Gazan genocide, major acts stopping by may become a thing of the past. Tel Aviv University history professor and Haaretz contributor Alon Gan offered a candid insight into the psyche of the Israeli authorities frightened of Beatlemania: “Israel in the early 60s was afraid that from the West would come a bad wind of sex, alcohol and rock ‘n’ roll.”
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