Matisyahu is not Israeli but he got boycotted anyway, after deciding not to perform politically correct views about Israel for the organisers of a reggae festival in Spain. Here’s what that feels like.
Sarah’s piece on Harry’s Place is aptly titled ‘BDS inflation‘.
Update: The Rototom organisers changed their minds – Matisyahu has been re-invited. They have posted a no-nonsense apology which you can translate, attributing their decision to bully tactics from a Valencia BDS outfit which threatened to disrupt the event. I’m not sure what made them change their minds – hopefully it was some kind of realisation rather than a bigger threat of disruption. The BDS outfit have their own ill-tempered statement in which they distance themselves from the PACBI BDS call to boycott institutions not individuals. It’s an ominous turn of events when PACBI comes off looking moderate. Still, the lesson is, show signs of life and you may just be able to shake off some antisemites. Vox has a good explainer.
September 1, 2015 at 6:26 pm
The update to this story is that ultimately Matisyahu played at Rototem and was booed by elements in the audience waving Palestinian flags and not one of the other performers lent Mati any sort of fraternity in playing there. Of course some of the reggae artists are notorious homophobes but they were not met with any such treatment by the audience.