{"id":13525,"date":"2018-09-01T19:28:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T19:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13525"},"modified":"2018-09-01T19:28:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T19:28:22","slug":"lana-del-rey-postpones-israel-concert-following-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13525","title":{"rendered":"Lana Del Rey postpones Israel concert following backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US singer Lana Del Rey has decided to postpone an appearance in Israel<\/a>, where she was due to perform at a music festival next week, in a planned concert\u00a0criticised by fans and activists.<\/p>\n

Del Ray said in a statement on Friday that she was pulling out of performing at Meteor Festival after being unable\u00a0to also schedule a coinciding appearance in\u00a0<\/span>Palestine<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s important to me to perform in both Palestine and Israel and treat all my fans equally,” she wrote on Twitter. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Unfortunately it hasn’t been possible to line up both visits with such short notice.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

pic.twitter.com\/Ii1kxFFxBL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) August 31, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her planned appearance at the three-day festival had drawn criticism from fans, who argued her presence would be used to legitimise Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Del Rey previously\u00a0defended her decision<\/a>\u00a0to perform in Israel, saying “music is universal and should be used to bring us together”, stressing her show would not be “a political statement or a commitment to the politics there”.<\/p>\n

Amid the criticism, she\u00a0issued a\u00a0<\/span>statement on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0last week, saying that\u00a0she understood “concern towards showing support to the Palestinians” and would arrange to visit Palestine while in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her decision on Friday followed a campaign by pro-Palestinian groups calling for a cultural boycott of Israel over its occupation of Palestine.<\/p>\n

Along with the pro-Palestinian group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)\u00a0<\/span>had launched a petition urging Del Rey to pull out of the show, saying her performance would “cover up gross violations of human rights”.<\/p>\n

The petition received 14,500 signatures.<\/p>\n

The PACBI welcomed the singer’s announcement as a “principled decision”.<\/p>\n

\n

Thank you @LanaDelRey<\/a> for your principled decision to withdraw from Israel’s Meteor Festival. <\/p>\n

Palestinians hope to hear you play when Israel’s occupation and apartheid end. <\/p>\n

We urge all participating artists in the festival to respect our nonviolent picket line. https:\/\/t.co\/8T4iMunqhd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 PACBI (@PACBI) August 31, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PACBI is part of the wider Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS<\/a>) movement.<\/p>\n

Established in 2005, BDS is a Palestinian-led international movement that calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and governmental sanctions on the country in order to pressure the Israeli state to prevent human rights abuses against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The movement has been cited as a national security threat\u00a0<\/span>by the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

In January, Israel published a\u00a0list<\/a>\u00a0of BDS-supporting organisations whose members would be banned from entering the country.<\/p>\n

\n

We’re proud to support\u00a0@PACBI<\/a>\u00a0and stand with BDS activists worldwide in thanking @LanaDelRey<\/a> for choosing equality over apartheid \u2013 and canceling her performance at the Meteor Festival in Israel. We invite others to cancel as well. Choose Freedom.\u00a0#BDS<\/a>\u00a0Yes.\u00a0@BDSmovement<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/fmdcsP8h2R <\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 JewishVoiceForPeace (@jvplive)\u00a0August 31, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Responding to Del Rey’s cancellation, the festival organisers said: “We do appreciate her for choosing Meteor to help her score some press attention.”<\/p>\n

In 2014, Del Rey – whose real name is Elizabeth Grant –<\/span>\u00a0also cancelled a performance scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv due to the war in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December 2017, New Zealand singer Lorde cancelled a performance in Israel after sustained pressure from pro-Palestinian activists and fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US singer Lana Del Rey has decided to postpone an appearance in Israel, where she was due to perform at a music festival next week, in a planned concert\u00a0criticised by fans and activists. Del Ray said in a statement on Friday that she was pulling out of performing at Meteor Festival after being unable\u00a0to also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}