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Fifty-four CCFP members “commend Lana for her principled stand in the face of calls to cancel her performance” in Israel.
By: United with Israel Staff
Dozens of music industry executives last week lent their support to pop star Lana Del Rey who chose to ignore calls to boycott Israel and perform at the Meteor Festival in the Galilee next month.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) issued a statement urging her to reconsider her performance in the Jewish state, but she fended off mounting criticism about her upcoming gig and rejected calls to boycott Israel.
Creative Community for Peace, an organization of prominent members of the entertainment industry dedicated to promoting the arts as a means to peace and to countering the cultural boycott of Israel, publicly backed Del Rey’s brave decision.
“We at Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) applaud Lana Del Rey and the other artists scheduled to perform at the upcoming Meteor Festival in northern Israel, and commend Lana for her principled stand in the face of calls to cancel her performance,” the organization said in a statement last week.
The CCFP is made up of music executives and performers, including Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake.
“As she wrote in response to those pressuring her to cancel her show in solidarity with the attempted cultural boycott of Israel, ‘Music is universal and should be used to bring us together.’ We could not agree more,” CCFP wrote in a letter signed by 54 executives.
“As professionals in the entertainment industry, we know that music and the arts in general can transcend differences in race, religion, or politics and connect us on a deeper human level. Art can reflect and explore those forces that divide us, but it should never become subservient to them. And frankly, the more than 30,000 people who have signed our anti-boycott petition agree,” the letter says.
CCFP assailed the boycott Israel movement that “is working tirelessly to subjugate art to politics, portraying every concert in Israel as a political act and thereby holding musicians hostage to their narrow agenda — while the founders of the boycott movement have also stated their belief in the Palestinian right of self-determination while denying Israel’s right to the same.”
“I would like to remind you that performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there just as singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment w[ith] my current governments opinions or sometimes inhuman actions,” Del Rey wrote.
Peace or Boycotts
“Those of us who care about peace must not allow the boycott movement to succeed in using art as a weapon to keep people apart instead of using it as a tool to bring them together. We believe in building bridges, not boycotts,” CCFP stated.
“We are confident that Lana Del Rey and the other artists scheduled to appear at the Meteor Festival… will have a fantastic time connecting with the diverse audiences at their shows,” CCFP added.
“They, like the hundreds of artists who have performed in Israel in recent years, such as the Rolling Stones, Jon Bon Jovi, Radiohead, Ziggy Marley, Nick Cave, Carlos Vives, and so many others will see people from all walks of life (and religions) sing and dance together in peace,” CCFP concluded.
Many performers coming to Israel face pressure from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. In the past, BDS mouthpiece Roger Waters has aggressively targeted musicians scheduled to play in Israel with public shaming and less than honest rhetoric.
Artists such as Radiohead, Ringo Starr, and Morrissey, among others, all ignored Waters’ tactics and rejected the BDS movement.
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