Singer Cassandra Wilson cancels Israel show: “I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel”

US jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson has canceled her gig this weekend at the Women’s Festival in Holon, following appeals by boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists encouraging her to respect the Palestinian call for boycott. She took a public political stand just before she was due to board a plane to Tel Aviv. 

Israeli daily Ynet reported (in Hebrew, translated) that Wilson announced, “as a human rights activist, I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel.” The report also stated that concert promoters are considering legal action against her. 

Activists from Boycott from Within, who drafted an appeal to Wilson last week, asked her not to “support selective empowerment of women under Israeli apartheid.”

Cassandra Wilson joins a lengthening list of international scholars, artists and performers who have refused to appear in Israel due to the government’s apartheid policies against Palestinians. 

 

 

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Thank you for honoring the dbs on israel...thuggery is not tolerated on school play grounds, so why would we want to reward them with song...Good job!

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I'm sorry the U.S. is giving the rich apartheid country of Israel millions of dollars instead of giving the money to people in the U.S. who need higher education, homes and some even good non-GMO food. However I am grateful that their are people who see the injustices and use their freedoms speak out against them. Thank you Ms. Wilson.

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Thank you Cassandra for your humanitarian act to boycott Israel ...god bless you.

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I love Cassandra Wilson's music. Now I know I can listen to her without thinking "this woman performed in Israel" I hope she will be an example to many and the people of Israel realise that what they are doing has not got international support.

Thank you Cassandra and thank you E.I. for the film clip.

Nora Barrows-Friedman

Nora Barrows-Friedman's picture

Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).