April 2019

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.

Original Article

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.

Original Article

By Matthew Kalman, JQ Jewish Quarterly UK

The Palestinian boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) campaign has been largely unsuccessful in slowing Israel’s booming economy.

“It’s had a handful of symbolic victories, like Airbnb, but the economic impact has been nil,” says David Rosenberg, economics editor for Haaretz and author of Israel’s Technology Economy: Origins and Impact.

But the cultural boycott is another matter. Economic stories tend to stay on the business pages. News that music celebrities are cancelling shows and arguing with other celebrities quickly finds its way into the headlines.

The buzz reverberates with younger audiences and can now be endlessly echoed and amplified on social media. Sometimes the feedback can be too loud for artists to ignore – particularly those still building their careers.

Noise aside, 2018 was not a great year for the boycott. Headline-grabbing cancellations by Lorde and Lana Del Rey barely dented more than 200 live performances by foreign artists in Israel. Visitors included Alanis Morisette, Ozzy Osbourne, America, Alice in Chains and Ringo Starr. So far a dozen major acts have been announced for 2019, including Bon Jovi, Slash and Steven Wilson.

Boycott calls by Wolf Alice, Portishead and Shame met forceful counter-arguments from artists like Nick Cave, who denounced the boycott as “cowardly and shameful”.

The UK Pink Floyd Experience cancelled an Israel mini-tour planned for January 2019 after former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters said he was “aghast” at the idea. “To sing my songs in front of segregated audiences in Israel, and contribute to the cultural whitewashing of the racist and apartheid government of that country, would be an act of unconscionable malice and disrespect”, Waters said.

“The people you intend to entertain are executing their neighbor’s children, shooting them down in cold blood every day.”

But then the tribute band U-turned, citing legal obligations, slammed their idol for “abuse and threats” to the band triggered by his initial comments, and played Tel Aviv, Beersheba and Haifa.

There are, of course, no “segregated audiences” in Israel (except for gender-specific gatherings of religious Jews or Muslims) and few would recognize Waters’s suggestion of daily executions, but people are listening to him.

In 2006, Oren Arnon, managing director of Shuki Weiss Promotion and Production, Israel’s biggest promoter, was tasked with the last-minute relocation of a concert by Roger Waters from Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv to the Israeli-Arab peace village Neve Shalom. 60,000 people witnessed what turned out to be his last appearance in Israel, for the biggest fee paid to any artist at the time. Waters promptly announced his support for BDS and became its most visible flagbearer.

“He made a decision that he was going to not only side with BDS, he was also going to try to convince other artists to do the same”, Arnon says. “All of which I think is not only legitimate, this is what touring acts should be doing around the world. They should be touring the world to learn about the problems that their fans have – even if it puts me out of a job.”

But it would be preferable if performers came to Israel before making up their minds, Arnon says. “I think you deserve the same opportunity that Roger Waters had. You deserve the right to come here, to understand what this conflict and this situation means, and you have the right to make up your own mind about it. If you decide to join BDS the day after, do that”, he says.

Not everyone is so sanguine. Israeli officials say the boycott movement is racist and part of an attempt to destroy the country.

“Culture and sports should be used as a means to build bridges, not divide people”, says a spokesperson for the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, charged with countering the boycott. “The Israel-boycott campaign is calling for the politicization of art to divide Israelis and Palestinians, while espousing antisemitic rhetoric and using threats of violence to achieve their goal of dismantling the Jewish State.” Meanwhile, Palestinian activists say it’s a legitimate, non-violent protest against oppression.

“The Israeli government uses international performances as a stamp of approval for its regime of oppression and its violent atta “Artists who truly wish to learn about the reality on the ground are welcome to visit on independent fact-finding missions, with no institutional links to Israel or its complicit institutions and without artwashing Israel’s system of oppression”, says Barghouti. “Palestinians have asked since 2004 that international artists do not cross our nonviolent picket line, in order not to undermine our struggle for fundamental human rights”, says SamirEskanda, a Palestinian musician and BDS activist living in London. Arnon says they are all wrong. “I don’t think that Roger Waters or Bibi Netanyahu should be shoving their opinions down artists’ throats and I don’t think that either of them should be intimidating artists to a point where artists are saying: ‘Fuck that, I don’t want to go and tour there because I don’t want to get harassed’”, he says. Reliable data about cancellations is scarce.

Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a Los Angeles based group formed in response to the boycott by Hollywood music and entertainment executives, counted 220 international acts in 2017 and eight cancellations, but the group did not produce a similar report for 2018. If that drop-out rate of 3% sounds minimal, a deeper dive gives a more nuanced picture. There are about 100 major shows by foreign musicians each year, and about 20 A-list artists booked to appear by January. As 2019 dawned, a similar number of shows were announced but they included only about 15 top-ranked artists.

A rough count of the large open-air summer shows that attract the largest crowds suggests they are diminishing. In 2017, there were nine park concerts, including Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears. In 2018, there were only three. So far, only Bon Jovi is booked to play at Hayarkon in 2019. “There’s a clear pattern of less people coming to Israel”, says Israeli promoter Hillel Wachs of 2b Vibes Music, noting that while fewer acts cancel, more are choosing not to come in the first place – a decision that usually occurs without publicity. “There’s been a movement professionally that the issue is discussed in advance so less people actually sign a contract and don’t show up”, he says. Boycotters are “becoming increasingly aggressive in their tactics”, says Ari Ingel, director of CCFP. “Any relatively well-known artist that books to play in Israel can expect some form of BDS pressure on social media and that looks to continue.

The bit of success they have had with artists such as Lana Del Rey and Lorde has energized them to put more resources into the cultural boycott sector.” Israel’s victory in last year’s Eurovision means that it will host the 2019 competition in May. A BDS petition spearheaded by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and a network of Palestinian cultural organizations, urged broadcasters, contestants and the public to boycott the contest.

“Would the Eurovision have held the contest in apartheid South Africa?” it asked. BDS activists say the comparison between Israel and apartheid is valid and make no excuse for singling out Israel ahead of other human rights violators and illegal occupiers like Russia and China. “Was the South African apartheid regime the worst regime in the world at that time? No”, says Eskanda. “Do activists have a responsibility to rank oppressive regimes in order of their flagrant violations of international law and only challenge the worst first? Of course not. Why should Israel be exempt from effective measures, including boycotts and sanctions, to hold it to account for its human rights abuses?”

It’s a message that chimes with hashtag campaigns on social media, where young artists are in daily communication with their fans. “Younger artists are more susceptible to BDS pressure since they live on social media”, says Ingel. “To them, it can sometimes be alarming when you have BDS trolls and bots posting messages falsely claiming ‘Apartheid’, ‘genocide’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, and that Israel is responsible for all the problems in the world. While false, these narratives are easy to push by just throwing out these terms. The reality is, most people don’t have any understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the BDS movement preys on that fact.” The hassle factor created by social media storms pushes Israel – already an isolated and expensive place to perform – beyond most managers’ comfort zone. “There’s a lot of reasons not to come to Israel, regardless of politics”, says Arnon at Shuki Weiss. “We’re a fucking island in the middle of the Middle East.” “Bands are touring in Europe in trucks and buses. They’re not getting on planes and schlepping their shit around”, he says.

“To come out here means you are leaving your trucks and your buses behind, you’re getting on a plane, you’re losing a day’s work in which you’re paying your crew. You’re coming in to play a show. You’re then flying out and losing another day’s work in which you’re paying your crew. Your trucks and buses are sitting there on the ground waiting for you and you’re paying for them too. There’s a genuine logistical and financial difficulty in coming out here and playing a show in the first place.” “Sometimes the artists, or the band, or the crew, just don’t like getting on a fucking plane”, he says. “They live on a bus. It’s very comfortable.

They have a routine. You do a show, you get on the bus, you go to the next town, you play your show. Now to start dealing with airports and that whole hassle, it’s a pain in the ass.” “Most of the acts’ reaction is: ‘What the hell? I got invited to play a show because I was told there were 10,000 kids waiting for me to come play for them. Now you’re destroying my social media with your propaganda’”, he says. “I know for a fact that most of the acts aren’t reluctant because they think that Israel is right, or Palestine is right.

They are reluctant because they don’t understand the situation in the first place and they would prefer not to get involved in this mess.”

Original Article

By Roy Trakin, Variety

SB Projects founder Scooter Braun, Geffen Records President Neil Jacobson and Warner Music Group Global VP of A&R Aton Ben-Horin were recognized as “Ambassadors of Peace” by Hollywood organization Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) on Thursday night. The sold out event held in the backyard of entertainment attorney Aaron Rosenberg and TV producer Danny Rose’s lavish Hancock Park home was a who’s who of industry bigwigs from the film, television and music worlds. The fundraiser was organized by CCFP co-chair David Renzer of Spirit Music Group (pictured above, at right).

While Israel is the focal point of CCFP’s efforts — specifically targeting the BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions) boycott of western artists performing in the country, led by Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters — the greater message of peace and bridge-building through artistic freedom also resonated.

Braun, alongside his very pregnant wife Yael Cohen (eight months along with their third child) described being the grandchild of Holocaust survivors – his grandfather was in Dachau and his grandmother Auschwitz. But despite those hardships, his grandmother lit up every room she entered, he said, also recounting the moment when his client Justin Bieber name-checked her from the stage at his Tel-Aviv concert and also took her by the hand as the group viewed the Yad Vashem museum on that same trip.

“The best way to change the world is to have an open, honest dialogue for peace and understanding on all sides,” Braun (pictured below with Rose, at far left, and Rosenberg) told Variety. Later “winging” his acceptance speech, he called for “everyone to also play in the West Bank, or any country where their voice can be heard to make a change.”

“This isn’t just about Israel, it’s about artists being free to perform wherever they want,” said honoree Jacobson, whose label is home to DJ Snake and the late Avicii. “This is an action committee. We don’t just write a check. There’s a team here that circulates e-mails and dispenses information. But it’s all rooted in kindness, making sure we’re voicing the other side to an extremely aggressive narrative. It’s all about opening up a dialogue.”

When WMG’s Ben-Horin came up to accept the award, his Moroccan father and Egyptian mother were front and center, kvelling as his dad recorded the proceedings on his iPhone. The same could be said for his mentor Mike Caren, founder and CEO of Artist Partner Group.

Describing his performance of a song he wrote about the Holocaust before a crowd of 7,000 during a March of the Living trip to Israel, Ben-Horin, who signed budding rapper Bhad Bhabie and has worked extensively with the likes of David Guetta and Flo-rida, described the country as the region’s “only democracy, a place where Christians and Muslims live as well as Jews. … Whatever your thoughts on the Middle East, the music should never be silenced,” he added. “It’s not about picking sides, but sadly, many artists are getting false information about what’s happening there and are pressured to cancel their shows.”

YouTube Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen, who claimed he wasn’t previously aware of CCFP, was more pointed. The New York-born son of Israeli parents insists on personally contacting any performer who refuses to perform in the country. “The best way for people to come together is through music,” said Cohen. “Roger Waters and I play golf together and sometimes I really get into it with him because I think he’s misinformed. Actually, the golf course is the best place to tell someone that. As long as he doesn’t have a club in his hand.”

Creative Community for Peace, Arrivals, Los Angeles, USA – 04 Oct 2018

There were several mentions of providing a counter-narrative to the so-called BDS  crowd, but for the most part the message isn’t meant to polarize or proselytize, as much as preserving and promoting music’s universal appeal.

The 400-plus guest list included Warner Bros. Records’ new executive team of Co-Chairman/CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck, who started his job officially on Monday, and co-Chairman/COO Tom Corson, along with music attorney Eric Greenspan, songwriting legends Diane Warren and Desmond Child, veteran managers Benny Medina and Andy Gould, ABC VP Scott Igoe, Pulse Music Group’s Josh Abraham and Jason Bernard, ASCAP’s Loretta Munoz, recording artist Taylor Dayne, Atlantic Records signings Bhad Bhabie and Alec Benjamin (who performed two songs acoustically in honor of Ben-Horin), producer Scott Storch, actor Josh Duhamel, Yiddish theater vet Mike Burstyn and “Fauda” star Rona-Lee Shimon, among a host of others.

Variety was the media sponsor for the event – Israeli-born Executive Editor, Music, Shirley Halperin also received recognition — along with Atlantic Records, The Blavatnik Family Foundation, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner Bros. Records, Warner Music Group and the Leon Charney Resolution Center.

Original Article

By Jewish News Reporter, Jewish News

More than 11,200 people have signed an online petition calling for the European Broadcasting Union to support the planned Eurovision Song Contest due to be held in Israel in May. 

Launched by Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), petitioners said the Eurovision’s “spirit of togetherness is under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel, subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division”.

Following last year’s win for Israeli entry Netta Barzilai, the annual competition will now be held at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Ground between 14-18 May, the first time that Israel has hosted Eurovision for 20 years.G

CCFP’s Eurovision statement says signatories think music “transcends boundaries and brings people together under a common bond”, and that “singing competitions, are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides. The statement adds, that those urging boycotts due to it being held in Israel are “subverting the spirit” of Eurovision.

“While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the best path to peace, we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer.” You can view the petition by clicking here.

But Palestinian activists have begun calling on artists, fans and broadcasters to boycott the competition because of Israeli policies, accusing Israel of “art-washing” (whitewashing alleged crimes through the arts).

Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, said Israel was “dying to have such a mega-cultural event” but Barzilai said Eurovision was “a European contest, it’s not Israel, it’s a worldwide thing”.

Public figures from the world of arts and entertainment have called for the BBC to “press for Eurovision to be relocated to a country where crimes against that freedom are not being committed,” but so far no countries have pulled out. 

The threat of countries boycotting the competition last year led Israeli officials to change the host city from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and this week Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “We will open our doors to all, as long as those people do not come here as enemies.”

Original Article

By Variety Staff, Variety

Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), an organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry that’s dedicated to promoting the arts as a means to peace in the Middle East, will honor several music business executives as “Ambassadors of Peace” at an October 4 gala event to be held at the Hancock Park home of attorney Aaron Rosenberg and television producer Danny Rose.

The honorees include Scooter Braun, founder of SB Projects whose clients include Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande; Neil Jacobson, President of Geffen Records; and Aton Ben-Horin, Global Vice President of A&R for Warner Music Group.

The inaugural event also touts special musical performances and an exclusive guest list of some 250 top industry executives.

Describing the honor, the CCFP described the individuals contributions: “Through their work and influence they advance coexistence, instill hope, and create a better future for all.”

Key to the CCFP’s mission is its anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) stance in which the organization has taken on the likes of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters over his anti-Israel rhetoric. Among the CCFP’s slogans are: “Don’t Boycott. Build Bridges. Instill Hope. Create a Better Future.”

Sponsors for the event include Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Variety, which serves as a media partner. For more information, head to the CCFP website.

Original Article