As Stern students, we take for granted the umpteen amounts of concerts here in New York City. But for residents of Israel, a concert from their favorite pop star is a rare opportunity. For the upcoming year, a growing number of singers have added Israel to their tour itineraries, despite the continuous efforts by the “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” movement to pressure celebrities not to perform in Israel. According to Tourist Israel’s website, artists set to perform in 2014 include stars Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Cyndi Lauper, and Julio Iglesias.
Since 2005, when the BDS campaign was first launched, the movement has been fervently pressuring famous figures not to appear or perform in Israel. The goal of the Palestinian Civil Society’s movement, according to its official statement, is to take “non violent punitive measures” through urging “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel…until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”
In addition to discouraging pop stars from performing in Israel, the movement attempts to accomplish its goals through demonstrating, calling for the boycott of Israeli goods, and pressing for the removal of Israeli advertisements.
In past years, BDS has succeeded in convincing several singers, among them Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Carlos Santana, and Stevie Wonder, in addition to major movie stars Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman, to cancel their shows and appearances in Israel and events relating to Israel. According to Forbes, their excuses appeared in the form of “scheduling conflicts”.
Though many stars have yielded to rising pressures, there are various artists who nevertheless continued with their performances. In 2011, the BDS movement sent a letter to R&B singer Macy Gray, declaring that “Palestinians are subjected to…the crime of apartheid,” and continued to note that “an international performance in Israel is understood amongst the Israeli public as condoning this reality.”
Macy Gray posed the question of whether or not she should perform in Israel to her fans via Twitter, and ultimately decided to continue with her show in Tel Aviv.
More recently, in May 2013, Alicia Keys received vehement letters protesting her upcoming performance in Israel from Roger Waters, former band member of Pink Floyd, and Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple. Walker’s open letter was posted on the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel’s website, which declares its allegiance to the BDS movement. Walker informed Keys that she was placing herself in “soul danger” by performing in Israel, which Walker called an apartheid country. She also claimed that the U.S. government espouses a regime that is “cruel, unjust, and unbelievable evil.”
Similarly, Waters urged Keys, on the website of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, to refrain from lending “legitimacy to the Israeli government policies of illegal, apartheid, occupation of the homelands of the indigenous people of Palestine.” Despite these pressuring demands, Alicia Keys performed in the Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv on July 4th, telling the New York Times, “music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.”
This summer, the former lead singer of The Animals, Eric Burdon, temporarily cancelled his performance in Tel Aviv. According to Forbes, this cancellation was due to actual death threats received from the self-proclaimed non-violent BDS campaign. Ultimately, the show was reinstated and he performed in Binyamina, near Haifa, in August. Similar death threats were reported to have trailed Paul McCartney in 2008, though he too proceeded with his performance in Israel.
Numerous other stars have performed in Israel in past years, including Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Madonna, and Elton John. Earlier this year, rumors began to spread that Rihanna was aligning with the BDS movement when she allegedly replaced the words “All I see is dollar signs” with “All I see is Palestine” in the song “Pour It Up” during her Tel Aviv show. The Washington Post eventually refuted this claim; it is apparent in the videos circulating the web that no such substitution took place. What this incident does illustrate, though, is that every concert in Israel becomes colored by politics.
Though stars may not outwardly side with one position, any appearance or nonappearance in Israel is subject to political debate. In the past, the BDS movement has had minor success in preventing stars from playing in Israel. The imminent arrival of some of the most popular artists today, however, demonstrates the increasing failure of the BDS campaign in accomplishing its mission.