Defying calls from the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, to cancel her performance at the Meteor Festival in Israel, American singer Lana Del Rey said in a statement, “I believe music is universal and should be used to bring us together.”
Del Rey had received widespread criticism from the boycotts movement and specifically from former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters following her announcement that she will perform at a festival in the northern Kibbutz of Lehavot HaBashan in September, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
“We signed on to the show with the intention that it would be performed for the kids there and my plan was for it to be done with a loving energy and a thematic emphasis on peace. If you don’t agree with it, I get it. I see both sides,” she said in a statement.
Del Rey noted that she is heading for a place “that many big bands are playing this year and at this festival.” This year’s lineup at the Meteor Festival includes rapper Pusha T, DJ Flying Lotus, jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington and many more. And already this summer, popular concerts have been held in Israel by Enrique Iglesias, Alanis Morissette, Ringo Starr, Ozzy Ozbourne, Maluma and many others.
Del Rey also personally responded to Waters, a prominent advocate of the boycotts movement and leading anti-Israel activist, who published an open letter urging Rey to boycott the festival. In a Facebook post Tuesday, Waters said performing in Israel would be “a political act in support of the apartheid state that would deny [Palestinians] basic human rights. Even if in your heart of hearts you believe yourself to be neutral.”
Rebuffing Waters, Del Rey responded on Instagram, “We will still be playing our show in Israel.”
But, she added, she wants people to know that “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.” Del Rey, added, addressing Waters: “I read your statement about taking action even when you believe in neutrality, I totally understand what you’re saying and this is my action.”
Del Rey is not the first artist to reject Waters’s insistence to boycott Israel.
In November 2016, J. J. Burnel, the bassist for the British punk band The Stranglers, in explaining the band’s view of performing in Israel, said of Waters, “I think he’s pretty ignorant, he doesn’t know the situation.”
Thom Yorke, leader of Radiohead, rejected pleas from Waters and others not to perform in Israel in June of last year, calling the pressure “patronizing.”
In November of last year, Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds, acknowledged that he had not performed in Israel for 20 years due to the pressure coming from Waters, but that he decided to perform in Israel to take a “principled stand” against those boycotting Israel.
In Wish you Weren’t Here, a documentary about Waters directed by Iain Halperin, David Renzer, the CEO of Spirit Music and co-founder of Creative Community for Peace observed that Waters uses his credibility in the music business to pressure other artists not to perform in Israel. However Renzer pointed out that because Waters says “some pretty extreme things” about Israel he should be “someone who doesn’t really have credibility.”
[Photo: Lana Del Rey / YouTube ]