#21

I really do hate to be ‘that guy’, but populous means ‘having a quantity of people’ - the word you’re looking for is populace.

Actually addressing the point you made - what are the direct comparisons with the USA and Israel on this? I agree that there are shades of grey, though, obviously.

#22

This is a great post on the issues.

#23

You are of course completely right on the spelling - genuinely thanks for pulling me up on a rookie error!

To be honest I’m not talking about comparable specific policies, more echoing Littlebirds’ point that if boycotts are aimed at forcing a populace to hold their governments to account over deplorable policies/attitudes then perhaps it’s fair to say that acts boycotting Israel arguably ought to be also boycotting States like the US and the UK to attempt to convince their electorates to turn on their governments over deplorable developments such as Trump/Brexit, or previously Iraq war etc.

Also, whilst I don’t think anyone here is saying that the UK and US are apartheid states or that they’re illegally occupying another country’s territory (though not so sure in the case of UK) they certainly have their own disgusting manifestations of the same/similar root problems. Again, whilst not specific comparisons, they’re arguably enough to say calls to boycott Israel feel a little hypocritical coming from artists who are happy to play in other morally dubious places just because there’s more money to be made there.

Btw I’m not saying that Radiohead are completely right and Waters et al are necessarily evil anti-semites, etc. Just that the position from which they’re criticising isn’t as morally unassailable as they present it to be.

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#24

Yeah she is apparently. I’d say I’m broadly in favour of the boycott but not sure those who don’t adhere to it necessarily need pilloried if they’ve responded and their personal circumstances show they’re unlikely to be acting out of ignorance or indifference.

As someone else mentioned it’ll be interesting to see if they address it onstage rather than just doing the gig and moving on. I kind of assume they’ll do the former but we’ll see.

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#25

Yeah I was thinking about Junun as well, didn’t know much about their lyrics so that’s an interesting point.

#26

This isn’t something I know much about but a couple of thoughts from reading the thread:

It’s been said that the point of a cultural boycott is to get people to challenge the government’s behavior. But really how likely is that just cos an indie band won’t play a gig? If you’re politically motivated enough to protest then you’re probably already doing it cos of the treatment if the palistinians not cos you can’t see your favorite band. It’s not exactly a food or fuel blockade.

Second, how does not playing a gig have any effect unless you announce you’re playing a gig in the first place. It’s not exactly on the main tour circuit and I bet that wouldn’t change much without the boycott. I’m sure you could make a massive list of bands who don’t play there, but would they play there anyway?

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#27

Pretty much this. Think it’s predominantly symbolic. I mean even food/economic blockades/boycotts rarely result in administration/policy change, just starvation for the poorest.

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#28

A very old piece I stumbled across on the effectiveness of boycotts

https://m.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/21guest1.htm

#29

they covered ‘Money’

#30

Roger Waters will love that.

#31

Oh, I did wonder where that came from all of a sudden

#32

actually, looks like that was lies

#33

Quite

#34

Looks like the show will be made into a concert video/documentary titled “Shut Up and Play the Hits!”

#35

they should have done the gig but just played Pablo Honey in full (apart from Creep). a more powerful gesture than any boycott.

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#36

Karma Police

#37

And a night off for Phil into the bargain :grinning:

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#38

Nick Cave takes a slightly more combative approach to explaining why the Bad Seeds are in Tel-Aviv

Just thought I’d add that the rest of this thread has been really good. Learned quite a bit from the links/points made.

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#39

Found his statement a bit frustrating. There’s a reason they feel so strongly about artists performing there, they’re not just being shitheads for no reason, and by acknowledging their presence and how forceful they are being he should of really done a bit more to address the issue/their arguments rather than just saying ‘i love israel’. I don’t think that’s enough in this context, the gig isn’t taking place in a vacuum.

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#40

way to belittle a legitimate progressive human rights movement, Nick

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