Pop star Madonna has rejected calls for her to boycott this year’s Eurovision song contest in Israel, saying she will “never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda.”
By United with Israel Staff and AP
Madonna issued a statement on Tuesday, ahead of her expected arrival in Tel Aviv for a performance at the Eurovision event.
While the international pop-star said her “heart breaks every time [she] hears about the innocent lives that are lost in this region,” she vowed she would “never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda.”
She also said she prays for “a new path toward peace.”
The Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel frequently uses coercion and other types of pressure to try to force musicians to cancel performances in Israel.
While the movement claims to fight for Palestinian rights, its true aim is to eliminate the State of Israel completely.
BDS has been linked to terror groups and its founder Omar Barghouti has used incendiary anti-Semtic rhetoric on number of occasions.
Madonna has performed in Israel several times and it was reported during the last several years that she planned to purchase property near Tzfat, the capital of Kabbalah study, a form of Jewish mysticism that attracted adherents outside of the faith during the past two decades.