CBNNews.com - AMMAN, Jordan - Arab performers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon have been forbidden to attend the 27th annual Jeresh Festival of Culture and Arts in Jordan to avoid "normalization with the enemy."

Slated to begin this weekend, this year's festival is being held in four locations in the Hashemite Kingdom -- Amman, Petra, the Dead Sea and Jerash -- to draw more tourists.

But when Arab unions learned that Morris Levy, a Jew, owned Publicis, the firm organizing the festival, artists were forbidden to perform on "suspicion of normalization with the enemy."

Publicis also organized Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

An article in the Jordanian daily al-Arab al-Yawm, stating that the firm organizing the festival was owned by a Jew, set off the Arab unions' reaction.

Source: YNet news