MIDDLE-EASTERN POLITICS IS DANGEROUS GROUND

Poor Ricky Martin - there he was, trying to rally the cause for peace in the Middle East - when it all went wrong. Now, we're not entirely sure why Martin has taken this role on; we'd suggest that he wasn't the most popular artist stradling the Israeli-Palestinian divide, but we bet within an hour someone would claim he's number one in Tel Aviv and on the Gaza Strip. Anyway, during the course of the silver jubilee celebrations for the Arab Children's Congress, Martin was given a spiffy kaffiyeh, which, of course, he pulled on straight away. To everyone's delight. Only problem was, of course, it carried the slogan 'Jerusalem Is Ours' all over it in Arabic. Now Martin has had to issue an apology for his headscarf slip:

"I had no idea that the kaffiyeh scarf presented to me contained language referring to Jerusalem, and I apologise to anyone who might think I was endorsing its message.

"My role is entirely humanitarian, and I will continue to promote the elimination of stereotyping anyone - be they from Latin America, the Middle East, or anywhere across the globe."

Of course, people who know what they're doing would take great care to avoid pulling on any items of clothing proferred, however well-meaning the gifter looks, if they were unable to read what the slogan was on it. To avoid this sort of thing happening.

music ricky martin israel