Unødvendigt at nævne det, men hendes 'politiske synspunkter' som ifølge TSO er "offentlig incitament til had", var faktisk oprigtig bekymring om militæraktioner mod civile mål, aktioner som har været stærkt støttet af amerikanske og kanadiske regeringer siden Vestens installering af det nuværende regime, som omfatter radikale med links til nazism, og med tabet af tusinder af uskyldige liv som resultat. I en opfordring på Facebook, sat op den 6. April, skrev Lisitsa:
...I tog til Twitter for at få den anden side af historien hørt, som du aldrig vil høre i massemedierne - mit folks skæbne, de gode og dårlige ting som sker i Ukraine. Jeg oversatte nyhedsartikler fra ukrainsk sprogede hjemmesider, Jeg oversatte øjenvidneberetninger om grusomheder...Jeg blev virkelig god til at afmaskere falske historier som blev ført i den vestlige presse med det formål at få den ene side i borgerkrigen til at se hvidere og blidere ud end påskekaninen, og den anden side - som undermennesker som ikke er værdige af barmhjertighed, blot "kollaterale skader."I denne verden, er 'talefriheden' kun begunstiget dem som siger de 'rette' ting. Ofte, er de som siger sandheden angrebet, på den ene eller den anden måde, eller har deres ord fordrejet for at kunne kaste dem i dårligt lys. Nu står Lisitsa igen for skud, fordi det hollandske flyselskab KLM har fjernet hendes music fra deres in-flight underholdningsprogram.
For at give et eksempel: en af mine sejre, var at konfrontere det franske modeblad Elle, som offenliggjorde en lyserød forsidehistorie om kvinder i den ukrainske hær. Efter lidt efterforskning har jeg vist bladet i mine Twitter posts at "hovedkvinden" som de havde valgt at fremvise rent faktisk var en forfærdelig person, åbent Neo-Nazi, racist og antisemitisk som pralede af at have dræbt civile mennesker bare for sjov! Bladet udstedte en skriftlig offenlig undskyldning.
Jeg var meget stolt! Men med tiden tiltrak mine aktiviteter en masse ondskabsfulde hadepersoner. Jeg var et særlig vigtigt "mål" fordi jeg var ukrainer, og derfor - en forræder. Jeg troede at jeg kendte til had - min spillen på Youtube klart "tiltrak" en god portion af hademail. Men jeg tog fejl. Dødstrusler, ønsker om død over min familie, kaldende mig en "betalt Kremlin luder"... listen fortsatte og fortsatte. Mine hadere stoppede ikke der. Prøvende med deres egne ord at give mig en lektion, de har nu forsøgt at sætte en stop for min musiske karriere...
Beslutningen blev taget efter at Inna Thorn, en ukrainsk kvinde som bor i Kanada, og medlem af en åbent anti-russisk og anti-Putin gruppe med navnet "Russian-speaking Ukrainian Nationalists", skrev følgende klage i en email til KLM den 23. august:
Kommentar: Vi undskylder at resten af artiklen er på engelsk, men vores lille stab har begrænset tid. Hvis du har lyst til at hjælpe med at oversætte, så skriv blot til sott_da@sott.net
I traveled this August with KLM from Canada to Netherlands and then to Ukraine and was appalled to see Valentina Lisitsa being featured in your in-flight entertainment.KLM replied:
This year Ms. Lisitsa contract and concerts were cancelled by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra because of her heinous tweets where she calls Ukrainians "dog shit", "pigs", "nazi" and celebrates terrorists responsible for taking down MH17 and killing close to 300 people on board including nearly 200 Dutch citizens*.
I am certain the Dutch airline company KLM will reconsider their decision about including a xenophobic performer in their entertainment programming after being informed about Ms. Lisitsa's other performance. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Dear Inna en Dmitry. First of all, please accept our apologies for the delay in the reply. We do appreciate passengers who reach out to us and point out something as sensitive and fragile as this matter. Our organization still mourns for the loss of the countless innocent lives lost on the MH17 flight. We regret that we were not able to catch this before, but have taken immediate action. The artist will be removed from the playlist in our Inflight Entertainment as soon as possible. Thank you once again for being observant and notifying us about this immediately.In addition, a spokesperson for the airline told national Dutch newspaper, de Volkskrant: "We were informed through social media that Lisitsa has expressed sympathy for the attack on MH17. That is horrible. We are now removing her music from all flights."
Note how KLM decides to 'take immediate action' without verifying Thorn's spurious accusations, even though it claims to have investigated Lisitsa's alleged statements. In response to this, Lisitsa told RT: "My first reaction was outrage. They didn't contact me or my recording company [and ask for a] second opinion."
Furthermore, she took to Twitter and has asked editors of de Volkskrant to present evidence for the claim that she "showed sympathy for the MH17 attack." Its editors have yet to respond.
The day after the MH17 crash on July 17th 2014, Lisitsa tweeted the following: "Heartbroken over news of Malaysian Airlines plane catastrophe. Disgusted over attempts to escalate the war using it as a pretext." How this translates to 'celebrating terrorists responsible for taking down MH17' is beyond me. If Lisitsa posted a tweet spelling this out, it must have come from Thorn's imagination as none can be found on Lisitsa's Twitter page.
© Inna ThornScreenshot by Inna Thorn, posted in the facebook group 'Russian Speaking Canadians For Peace' on August 23rd with the text: "I was so happy not to think about Putin trolls and Lisitsa and her hatred for a bit, and then during last hour of transcontinental KLM flight an unpleasant surprise. Imagine ))) I was wide awake right away. I am a regular KLM customer and KLM is to hear from me soon."
...Lisitsa's affection and support of those who bring death and destruction in East Ukraine and who are responsible for shooting down MH17 is obvious and is not a result of our imagination but of Lisitsa's actions and tweets, for which she does not seem to want to take any responsibility.To such supporters of the Western-installed regime in Kiev, those who are fighting for their lives in eastern Ukraine are 'terrorists', and Russia, which has sent tons of humanitarian aid to the region, is at fault. It completely escapes them that Lisitsa has a much better and more accurate understanding of the situation in Ukraine, which by now has claimed the lives of at least 50,000 civilians and servicemen since February last year. It is clear to anyone who has followed the developing chaos there that Lisitsa does not support 'terrorists', but simply supports those who are fighting to protect their loved ones against neo-nazi extremists and the Kiev regime, and offers some relief via her music to those who have suffered in this war:
Renowned pianist Lisitsa, who condemned Kiev war against E. Ukraine, to perform concert in Donbass
...Lisitsa stated that she would be very happy if it were held outdoors, "because I know how much interest and thirst for classical music and for music in general there is among Donbass residents, and I'm very excited to go there."
Asked about whose composers' works she planned to play, Lisitsa noted that it would be "very symbolic to perform Prokofiev, because he is from that region; he was a composer whose roots are [in the Donbass region]" and his music was inspired and influenced by his homeland. Moreover, she plans to play beloved pieces by composers including Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Bach, whose "pieces... unite all of us - that make us feel like one close family."
In addition to her hopes of giving joy to the people of Donbass, Lisitsa also hopes to show her fans and those who observe and follow her work that ordinary people "on all sides don't want war, to fight with each other; they don't want their children, their husbands, sons and daughters to die under bombs and bullets." She wants to show her Western followers that the people of Donbass are just like them, that they love classical music just like them. Noting that she will post videos of her performance on YouTube, she said that "I think that's the best kind of service I can possibly do for the people of Donbass."
Kommentar: Se også:
Toronto Symphony Orchestra cancels Valentina Lisitsa concert for speaking out on Ukraine atrocities
A story of courage through art: Valentina Lisitsa plays concert in Donetsk