of Montreal pull out of Israeli festival Meteor

"Now is the time for activism and protests," the band said

of Montreal have pulled out of the Israeli Meteor Festival, which is set to take place in Tel Aviv this weekend.

The band announced the news via a Facebook statement, citing that they had “exhausted all of the different possible ways of justifying playing an Israeli party festival while the political and military leaders of the country continue their murderous and brutal policies against the Palestinian people.”

“We came to the realization that there is no actual appropriate move other than to cancel the show. Now is not the time for escapism and celebrations. Now is the time for activism and protests against Israeli apartheid, Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the human rights atrocities being carried out every day in Gaza by Israeli forces,” it continued.

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“We have so much love for the peace-loving Israeli people and an equal amount of love for the peace-loving Palestinians. This is in no way an indictment of the Israeli people in general. We simply cannot turn a blind eye to this crisis. To ignore the call to stand up in support of an oppressed group of humans is one of the worst things one can do.” See the full statement below.

After deep consideration, we have decided to cancel our appearance at the Meteor festival. After exhausting all of the…

Posted by of Montreal on Tuesday, September 4, 2018

The news comes after Lana Del Rey was criticised by pro-Palestine campaigners for her scheduled appearance at the festival.

Del Rey previously defended her decision to play in the country, tweeting: “I would like to remind you that performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there just as singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment w my current governments opinions.”

Posting on Instagram on August 21, she had repeated that she would still perform in Israel, despite being pressured to pull out. “My views on democracy and oppression are aligned with most liberal views,” she wrote.

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“We will still be playing our show in Israel. That being said, I understand the concern towards showing support to the Palestinians too. So I just wanted to let you know when I’m in Israel I will be visiting Palestine too and I look forward to meeting both Palestinian and Israeli children and playing music for everyone. I want peace for both Israel and Palestine.”

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