Wolf Alice, Shame, Portishead and more lend support to #ArtistsForPalestine

"A means of peaceful protest against the brutal occupation"

Wolf Alice, Shame, Portishead, Circa Waves and Carl Barat are among the hundreds of artists calling for a boycott of Israel, in unity against their continued and violent clashes with Palestinian protestors.

In the continued conflict over occupation, last week saw reports of at least 52 Palestinians being killed after Israeli forces opened fire, with thousands more wounded as they protested in Gaza and the West Bank over the US Embassy moving to Jerusalem.

The Israel Defence Forces downplayed violence on the day, insisting that they killed three “terrorists” and struck five “terrorist targets”, while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was acting in self-defence. “Every country has an obligation to defend its borders,” he tweeted.

Now, hundreds of artists have lent their support to a boycott of Israel by sharing a message of protest across social media.

The message reads: “As long as the Israeli government commits war crimes against the Palestinian people, we support their call for a boycott of Israel as a means of peaceful protest against the brutal occupation.”

Posted by Portishead on Tuesday, May 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/BLACKHONEYUK/status/998930769715384321

This comes after Lorde cancelled a gig in Tel Aviv earlier this year, after facing backlash from fans who claimed that the show would suggest support of Israel’s occupation of the territory.

Nick Cave was also urged to pull a gig from the city, with artists and pro-Palestinian groups asking not to perform “while apartheid remains”.

“At the end of the day, there’s maybe two reason why I’m here. One is that I love Israel and I love Israeli people, and two is to make a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians”, Cave responded.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters hit back: “Nick thinks this is about censorship of his music? What? Nick, with all due respect, your music is irrelevant to this issue, so is mine, so is Brian Eno’s so is Beethoven’s, this isn’t about music, it’s about human rights.”

“We, hundreds of thousands of us, supporters of BDS and human rights throughout history all over the world join together in memory of Sharpeville and Wounded Knee and Lidice and Budapest and Ferguson and Standing Rock and Gaza and raise our fists in protest.”

Rogers also hit out at Radiohead last year after they announced a gig in Tel Aviv – leading to pro-Palestinian protestors waving flags at a number of their gigs.

https://twitter.com/Liam_O_Hare/status/883531630564061184

Frontman Thom Yorke described the situation as “extremely upsetting”, “offensive” and “an extraordinary waste of energy”, adding of Waters and his fellow critics: “It’s deeply distressing that they choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw shit at us in public.”

After a Twitter altercation with director Ken Loach, the gig went ahead as planned.

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