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.
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.
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.
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.
WTF!
There’s a 35% chance I’m going to punch him in the face for this.
I’m a massive Nick Cave fan and had to look this up. I found this, which is a pair of letters from him.
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.
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.
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.
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.