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When McCartney announced plans for Thursday's concert, he acknowledged the brouhaha, saying he was finally coming "43 years after being banned by the Israeli government." He promised to give fans "the night they have been waiting decades for." Ahead of the concert, newspaper columnist Yossi Sarid, son of the Israeli official who allegedly banned the Beatles, went on a campaign to clear his father's name. Sarid claimed his father had nothing to do with the decision, and that it involved a more mundane feud between two Israeli concert promoters. Sarid, reached ahead of the concert, said he hadn't heard from McCartney's people and had no plans to attend. "The tickets are too expensive," he said. A small group of Palestinians had urged McCartney to call off the show, saying it was supporting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. A radical Muslim preacher in Lebanon also called on McCartney to cancel the show. During a visit to the biblical town of Bethlehem on Wednesday, McCartney brushed off the criticism. "I get criticized everywhere I go, but I don't listen to them," McCartney said. "I'm bringing a message of peace, and I think that's what the region needs." ___ On the Net:
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