Sixty years after the birth of Beatlemania in America, you may wonder what any of this has to do with Israel. When The Beatles were in New York in February 1964, Ringo Starr was asked what plans the group had for that year. He specifically mentioned upcoming concerts in Israel and South Africa.
Both shows were eventually canceled, and the closest Beatlemania ever came to our borders that year was when The Beatles flew from London to Hong Kong for a performance that was to kick off their tour to Australia and New Zealand.
Their BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) airliner landed at Beirut Airport to refuel. There, they were met by hundreds of young Beatles fans who tried to storm the plane. The local police actually found it necessary to use fire-fighting foam to hold the crowds back. Afterward, the aircraft was able to leave without any further incident.
The efforts to bring The Beatles to Israel
The following year, in 1965, there was a serious attempt to arrange a Beatles concert in Israel. Yaakov Ori, an Israeli concert promoter, found out that Brian Epstein’s mother, Queenie (Malka), had relatives living in Israel. Through them, Ori was able to contact The Beatles’ manager himself [Epstein], and they scheduled a concert to be held on Thursday, August 5, 1965, at Ramat Gan Stadium. Ori then applied to the Finance Ministry for a permit, but they refused his request because there was a shortage of foreign funds in the country at that time. Being that The Beatles were to be paid a substantial amount of money and were certainly not interested in receiving it in Israeli lirot, the deal started to fall apart.
Next came the Education Ministry’s Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Authorization of Bringing Foreign Artists to Israel. They decided not to allow the request for fear that the performance by The Beatles would have a negative influence on Israeli youth. There were some government officials who still remembered the visit to Israel by British rock star Cliff Richard a couple of years earlier. That was when 2,000 female pop music fans went crazy at Lod Airport while greeting him upon his arrival. In the end, the final decision was made by the committee to cancel the Beatles concert.
Let’s jump ahead now more than 40 years later to 2008 when the Israeli government sent an official letter to the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. (John Lennon was murdered in 1980, and George Harrison died of cancer in 2001.) The letter read as follows:
“We would like to take this opportunity to rectify a historic missed opportunity which unfortunately took place in 1965 when you were invited to Israel. Unfortunately, the State of Israel canceled your performance in the country due to lack of budget and because several politicians in the Knesset had believed at the time that your performance might corrupt the minds of the Israeli youth. There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform before the young generation in Israel who admired you and continues to admire you.”
The letter concluded with a formal invitation to the two ex-Beatles to come to Israel and perform at the upcoming 60th Year of Independence Celebration. Paul McCartney came to Israel later in the year to perform his “Friendship First” concert in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park, attended by 50,000 enthusiastic fans. It took Ringo Starr another 10 years to visit the Jewish state when he performed two concerts at the Menorah Arena in Tel Aviv with his All-Starr Band.
For Beatles fans like me, who attended the shows by both artists, a decade apart, it was a dream come true. The Beatles – albeit just two of them, but the only ones still alive – had finally made it to Israel.
The writer is a musician and educator living in Jerusalem with his wife, who he married 44 years ago today.