By: Ben Beaumont-Thomas, The Guardian
Nick Cave has elaborated on his stance regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, calling the cultural boycott of Israel “cowardly and shameful”.
Cave played a pair of concerts in Tel Aviv in November 2017 with his band the Bad Seeds, and received criticism from artists who oppose Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and refuse to perform in the country. Writing on his website in an answer to a question from a fan, Cave posted an email he had sent to Brian Eno, one of the artists promoting the boycott.
“I do not support the current government in Israel, yet do not accept that my decision to play in the country is any kind of tacit support for that government’s policies,” Cave wrote, adding that he supported the Palestinian cause and that Palestinian suffering “is ended via a comprehensive and just solution, one that involves enormous political will on both sides”. He also highlighted his own charity work that raised £150,000 for the pro-Palestine Hoping Foundation.
He also said the boycott “is partly the reason I am playing Israel – not as support for any particular political entity but as a principled stand against those who wish to bully, shame and silence musicians”, and that the boycott “risks further entrenching positions in Israel in opposition to those you support”.
Artists opposing him should “go to Israel and tell the press and the Israeli people how you feel about their current regime,” he said, “then do a concert on the understanding that the purpose of your music was to speak to the Israeli people’s better angels … Perhaps the Israelis would respond in a wholly different way than they would to just yet more age-old rejectionism.”
Cave added a note saying Eno was his hero, responsible for “some of the most important and essential recordings I have ever heard. So, if there seems to be a thread of anguish that runs through this letter, this is indeed the case.” But he reiterated that Eno was “weaponising” music, adding: “What has brought us to the point where certain musicians feel it is ethically sound to use forms of coercion and intimidation, in the form of ‘open’ letters, on fellow musicians who don’t agree with their point of view? … I simply could not treat my Israeli fans with the necessary contempt to do Brian Eno’s bidding.”
Eno had previously said: “This has nothing to do with ‘silencing’ artists – a charge I find rather grating when used in a context where a few million people are permanently and grotesquely silenced … Israel has consistently – and lavishly – used cultural exchange as a form of ‘hasbara’ [propaganda] to improve the image of the country abroad, and to ‘show Israel’s prettier face’, in the words of a foreign ministry official. The BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] campaign is simply asking artists not to be part of that propaganda campaign.”
Cave’s stance is one shared by Thom Yorke of Radiohead, who defended performing in Israel by saying “playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government”. Other musicians have recently pulled out of concerts following discussions about the boycott and Israel-Palestine conflict. Lorde cancelled a Tel Aviv concert scheduled for June this year, after “speaking [with] many people about this and considering all options”. Fellow pop singer Lana Del Rey defended a planned concert, saying she would perform “with a loving energy with a thematic emphasis on peace”, but later cancelled after not being able to also book a similar Palestinian concert at short notice.
BY ARI INGEL, The Jerusalem Post
It was disturbing to see Roger Waters once again publicly denounce and vilify a band that was booked to play a show in Israel. His recent Facebook post also contained his usual lies about the State of Israel.
His latest target was a cover band called The UK Pink Floyd Experience, who has previously performed in Israel. Waters unleashed a social media assault against the group, calling their scheduled performance in Israel “an act of unconscionable malice and disrespect,” while stating that Israel was a “racist and apartheid” state that practices segregation. He also made the outrageous claim that Israeli citizens were “executing their neighbors’ children, shooting them down in cold blood every day.”
After The UK Pink Floyd Experience initially canceled their tour dates in Israel, Waters claimed victory, and implied that the group did so in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The band’s lead singer, David Power, quickly shot down these assertions, stating that the band canceled their shows due to “the abuse and threats they were receiving” as a result of Waters’s initial Facebook post. Power stated that he does not support the BDS movement. The band has since reversed its decision and will perform in Israel in January.
This episode is reminiscent of another incident earlier this year when these same tactics of inciting hate were used against the Argentinian national football team, who canceled a friendly football match in Israel after members of the BDS movement threatened them with violence.
Roger Waters and other boycott activists frequently use inflammatory and inaccurate terms such as “apartheid” and “segregation” to describe Israel, misleading people about the current situation and denigrating the true meaning of those terms. Instead of helping to bring about peace, such inflammatory and patently false statements only work to increase divisions and stoke hatred.
With over 1.7 million Arab citizens of Israel, who account for nearly 20% of the population, Israel has never practiced racial segregation. It is the only real democracy in the Middle East, where Arabs sit in parliament and on the Supreme Court; while over 22% of the student body of the Technion, Israel’s version of MIT, are Arab students. Israel also has progressive laws when it comes to free speech, freedoms of the press, as well as LGBTQ rights.
Similarly, after a tour stop in Munich earlier this year where Waters espoused his views on Israel that included flying a pig with the Star of David on it, Munich Mayor, Dieter Reiter, slammed Waters, for stoking antisemitism. Reiter stated that Waters “is responsible for growing, intolerable antisemitic statements” that is couched in the form of BDS. He went on to add that the “antisemitic propaganda of Roger Waters is neither welcome in Munich nor will it remain unanswered.”
The mayors of Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt have stated that the language coming out of the BDS community is reminiscent of the language used by the Nazis. All three cities have recently passed anti-BDS legislation denouncing hate-filled speech.
Unabashedly, the BDS movement’s goal is the defamation, delegitimization and eventual elimination of the State of Israel, as stated openly by the group’s founder and leader, Omar Barghouti. He has repeatedly said that he does not support the idea of a two-state solution and opposes a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. He considers Palestine to be comprised of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Another deceptive tactic used by the BDS movement is their “anti-normalization” policy that seeks to prevent any interaction between Arabs and Israelis. Under this policy, even if an artist wants to play a show in both Israel and the West Bank, the BDS movement will not allow a Palestinian venue to host any act that also performs in Israel. Recently, the BDS movement demanded that the EU cancel a program that was to bring young Israelis and Palestinians together under the pretext that the event promotes normalization between the two peoples.
These lies and bullying tactics need to end. We all hope that a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is found soon and we believe that the arts and artists can be part of that solution. Music brings people together, and change comes through engagement, not cultural boycotts and silencing artistic expression.