• AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    11 days ago

    Nick Cave is staunchly pro-Israel, in the way edgy right-wing dudes are. Whether sufficiently staunchly to drop everything, fly to the US and open for Sheeran on his tour remains to be seen.

        • groucho@retrolemmy.com
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          11 days ago

          I’m a massive Nick Cave fan and had to look this up. I found this, which is a pair of letters from him.

          It struck me while writing this how much more powerful a statement you could make if you were to go to Israel and tell the press and the Israeli people how you feel about their current regime, then do a concert on the understanding that the purpose of your music was to speak to the Israeli people’s better angels. That would have a much greater effect than a boycott.

          I dunno. I can see his point but I’m also disappointed? It’s definitely not “staunchly pro-Israel”. He’s just made a decision to play there and is using that to justify it. I don’t know if showing up and telling people in person is better than boycotting and showing them what they’re missing. If I were in his position I’d boycott.

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            I kind of get it though, in my experience prejudices die by exposure, they flourish in the dark. I don’t see how an artistic performance boycott does anything but further close them off to other points of view.

            • groucho@retrolemmy.com
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              10 days ago

              Yeah. It’s not black and white. Make a principled stand, or err on the side of getting your point across. I can see both arguments and he’s betting on humanity.

          • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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            10 days ago

            The thing is that the BDS movement specifically asked for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel as well. The same thing happened with Apartheid-era South Africa.

            I could understand his point in isolation, but there’s a larger social context here. Israelis (and Palestinians) don’t, I think, need awareness raised, they already know what’s going on there.