|
 Itzhak Gerberg, Israel's ambassador to New Zealand, said in a
public letter it was "regrettable" that the concert had been
called off and the boycott of his country represented "hostility
and intolerance".
"I invite you to meet me in person to discuss Israel, its
achievements and its role as the only democracy in the Middle
East," Gerberg said on the Embassy of Israel's Facebook page.
Lorde's representatives did not immediately respond to request
for comment on her response or whether she planned to meet the
ambassador.
The 21-year-old New Zealand singer had been slated to perform in
Tel Aviv in June as part of a global tour to promote her
chart-topping second album 'Melodrama'.
Campaigners have been urging her to scrap the show, calling in
an open letter on Dec. 21 for her to pull out as part of a
boycott to oppose Israel's occupation of the Palestinian
territories.
"Playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the
policies of the Israeli government, even if you make no comment
on the political situation," campaigners Justine Sachs and Nadia
Abu-Shanab, wrote on news website The Spinoff.
"We believe that an economic, intellectual and artistic boycott
is an effective way of speaking out," they said.
Lorde said on Twitter at the time she was speaking with "many
people about this and considering all options".
[to top of second column] |
Eran Arielli, the promoter of the concert, said on Facebook on
Sunday that the show was off.
"The truth is I was naive to think that an artist of her age would
be able to absorb the pressure involved in coming to Israel," he
wrote in Hebrew.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was launched in
2005 as a non-violent campaign to press Israel to heed international
law and end its occupation of territory Palestinians seek for a
state.
Artists who have boycotted Israel include Pink Floyd's Roger Waters
and Elvis Costello.
Other major stars, such as Elton John, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses,
the Rolling Stones, Justin Bieber and Rihanna have performed in
recent years in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has long
campaigned against the BDS movement, describing it as anti-Semitic
and an attempt to erase Israel's legitimacy.
(This story has been refiled to show Eran Arielli was sole promoter,
paragraph 10.)
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield in WELLINGTON; additional
reporting by Peter Hirschberg in SYDNEY and Jeffrey Heller in
JERUSALEM; Editing by Robert Birsel)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
