The Show Will Go On?
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Palestinian group to Bon Jovi: Cancel show in Israel
Middlesex County, where the members of Bon Jovi are from, is one of the the more diverse places in the United States and everyone seems to get along pretty well.
Unfortunately, it's not like that in other parts of the world. A group called the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which refers to the unrest between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples as "colonial oppression," is calling for a boycott of the Bon Jovi October 3 show in Tel Aviv.
"We ask the members of the band, Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres, to reconsider their concert in apartheid Israel, until Israel complies with international law and respects the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people," states the Palestinian group on www.change.org.
A spokesman for the band stated, on Wednesday, July 8, that Bon Jovi is indeed playing the October 3 show.
"It's important to us to show people around the world that Israel is not what they see on CNN," said concert promoter Shay Mor Yosef to Ynetnews.com. "This is a historical event and we hope the Israeli audience embraces it."
Bon Jovi has also announced shows in China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Abu Dhabi. The Palestinian group appealed to frontman Jon Bon Jovi's concerns for human rights to cancel the Tel Aviv show.
"We know that through his Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation he helps 'combat issues that force families and individuals into economic despair,'" said the group. "Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people have caused enormous despair, death, injury, and displacement, to millions of people."
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement, or "BDS," has some traction. Lauryn Hill canceled an Israeli concert after receiving pressure from BDS members, according to the Jerusalem Post, and more than 700 British artists, including Roger Waters, Brian Eno and Richard Ashcroft, pledged they will not "will not engage in business-as-usual cultural relations with Israel."
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has targeted numerous other artists, including Green Brook resident Gloria Gaynor of "I Will Survive" fame.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for whom Jon Bon Jovi just hosted a fundraiser in Red Bank on June 29, has spoken out against the BDS movement in a letter to Clinton donor and pro-Israel billionaire Haim Saban that was published byTalkingpointsmemo.com.
"BDS seeks to punish Israel and dictate how the Israelis and Palestinians should resolve the core issues of their conflict. This is not the path to peace," Clinton said. "Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world — especially in Europe — we need to repudiate forceful efforts to malign and undermine Israel and the Jewish people."
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