Many entertainers in the Arab world cancelled their New Year's celebrations as a show of solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza following five days of a ruthless Israeli military offensive against the already beleaguered Strip.New Year events scheduled to take place in Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan and many other parts of the Arab world have been either postponed or cancelled.
Four days of air strikes on the blockaded Strip yielded 380 dead and over 1750 wounded the majority of whom were civilians, prompting angry demonstrations world wide that have extinguished the normally festive mood around New Year's Eve.
Abdel Moneim Kamel, head of the Cairo Opera House told AlArabiya.net on Wednesday that Egyptian singer Mohamed Mounir's concert scheduled for New Year's Eve has been postponed till late January.
Mounir expressed his sorrow over the massacre in the Gaza Strip, explaining in a statement that "delaying the concert is a message sent to the whole world, so that it would move forward and help the people in Gaza."
The Egyptian government also announced the delay of events organized to celebrate the New Year, including an Egyptian operetta set to be recorded for the festive season and the debut of a new TV channel, Nile Comedy, initially scheduled for Thursday.
"We postponed the launch of Nile Comedy and instead of festive shows, we are airing documentary films," Osama al-Sheikh, head of Egypt's Nile Thematic channels, told AlArabiya.net.