Music organizations, record labels and promoters are calling for a cultural boycott of Israel, following the escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The boycott is being advocated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which supports a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, accusing them of complicity in rejecting Palestinian rights. The campaign is being led by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which was behind a recent wave of band dropouts from The Great Escape and Latitude Festival this year. The move to boycott Israeli culminated after a recent airstrike operation in Rafah, where a reported at least 37 people were killed. The attack caused several tents to catch fire, killing more residents in a city that is home to thousands of displaced Palestinians from all over the Gaza Strip.
Music organizations and labels that have committed themselves to the boycott and come under pressure from PACBL include Dark Entries, Techno Queers, Dweller, Noise Not Music, Night Slugs, 8-ball community, Gold Bolus Recordings and FIST. PACBI is specifically overseeing cultural, artistic and academic boycotts against Israeli institutions which have been accused of “denying Palestinian rights as stipulated by international law.” Academic boycotts have been gaining momentum at universities around the world in response to the situation.
Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood recently played a show with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa. PACBI subsequently provided a statement to NME, stating: “Palestinians reject Jonny Greenwood’s misleading excuses for his immoral involvement in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. We call for increased peaceful pressure on his bands Radiohead and The Smile to distance themselves from it or face grassroots measures. By performing in apartheid Tel Aviv while Israeli forces burned Palestinians alive in Rafah, Ga
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