Daily Alert Archives

The Rock and Roll Boycott of Israel

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Adam Shay - For the last ten years there has been an ongoing attempt to promote a cultural boycott of Israel. While this campaign has achieved very few actual victories, it has received widespread attention and media coverage disproportionate to its success. Once one scratches the surface of any given concert cancellation, one quickly concludes that ideology, conscience, and support for the Palestinian cause have very little to do with it. The true factors leading to a cancellation are usually online bullying, threats of damaging an artist's reputation and sales, disrupting concerts, sabotage letters, deceit, and explicit death threats. More often than not, the so-called "success" the boycott movement has enjoyed never happened. Just because a pro-boycott site claims that an artist or band has boycotted Israel doesn't necessarily mean that this is true. Overall, the cultural boycott of Israel appears to be losing ground. The biggest names in the world of music continue to frequent Israel. As Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones recently said: "We've been slammed and smacked and twittered a lot by the anti-Israeli side; all I can say is: anything worth doing is worth overdoing. So we decided to add a concert."
2014-05-09 00:00:00
Full Article