Haaretz has a long article on the wave of DJs who have decided, many at the last minute, not to play in Israel – even though many of them have played in Tel Aviv in the past.
It quotes some of them giving their varied and hypocritical reasons for not playing now. But one section tells the truth:
Amotz Tokatly, who’s responsible for bringing DJs to Tel Aviv’s Beit Maariv club, isn’t feeling much of a change. “The cancellations or refusals by DJs and artists based on a political platform didn’t begin just this year. I’ve been encountering this for many years now. There are even specific countries where we know the prevailing mood is political and tending toward the boycott movement. For example England. The rhetoric there is a priori much stronger,” Tokatly says.“But take Ben UFO, who has played in Tel Aviv in the past. When we got back to him about another spinning gig he said explicitly, ‘It simply isn’t worth it for me from a public relations perspective, and it could hurt me later on.’ DJs like him make their own calculations.”
Ben UFO has played in Lebanon, whose Palestinians would love to trade places with their brethren under “occupation.” He’s played in China and Russia and Turkey, where human rights are a joke. He’s played in Morocco, the occupier of West Sahara.
At least he admits privately that he has no principles.
Other DJs who now pretend to be so moral by not playing in Israel have also played in nations whose human rights records are abysmal like DJ Seinfeld (Russia, Turkey), Shanti Celeste (Russia, China), and Leon Vynehall (Morocco, UAE).
And all of these artists hate Donald Trump and US policy but happily play to big crowds in the US.
I’m not saying that these artists should play in Israel because there are other countries that are worse. I’m saying that they are so brainwashed that they don’t understand that Israel’s human rights record is outstanding for a nation in a state of war for 70 years which must interact with millions of people who are taught from birth that killing Israeli Jews will get them to Paradise.
The hypocrisy is crystal clear. But until people actually point out to them that we all see what hypocrites they are, nothing will change.
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