MEDIA RELEASE: British Rock legend Eric Burdon of "The Animals" cancels upcoming Israeli gig
British rock legend, Eric Burdon, of the band "The Animals" has canceled a scheduled August 01st appearance in Israel, his management announced earlier this week on Tuesday, 23 July 2013. “We’ve been receiving mounting pressure [to cancel],” said a statement released by Burdon’s management. Burdon and The Animals were one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, with hits like “The House of the Rising Sun,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, “We Gotta Get out of This Place” and “It’s My Life”.
According to
Israel's Jerusalem Post Newspaper, last week the Israeli band, Tislam, that was meant to co-perform with Burdon met with him in Vienna ahead of the planned Israeli show where Burdon revealed that he had received a number of online appeals to cancel his appearance. Tislam subsequently issued a statement expressing regret over the cancellation, explaining that:
“To appear with Eric Burdon, one of the founding fathers of rock & roll, was an almost dream come true. We’re sorry that despite his personal assurance to us, that he bowed to pressure and cancelled his concert [in Israel].”
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The cancellation by Burdon comes on the back of award-winning film director, Mira Nair, also canceling on Israel due to Israel's "Apartheid" policies against the indigenous Palestinian people and in support of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel movement.
Other high-profile artists to have boycotted Israel in recent years include world renown musician,
Stevie Wonder;
Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; Grammy-winning jazz singer,
Cassandra Wilson; singer-songwriter
DJ Cat Power (Chan Marshall); South African Nobel Prize Laureate,
J.M. Coetzee;
Slumdog Millionaire author, Vikas Swarup; Pulitzer Prize winning author,
Alice Walker of the acclaimed novel, "The Color Purple"; and the
UK dance band, Faithless. Local South African musicians to have recently backed the boycott of Israel include
Simphiwe Dana (see:
http://tinyurl.com/cyguvjx) and Tumi Molekane, from Tumi & the Volume (see:
http://tinyurl.com/pqtpx52) who have both used their official Twitter accounts to publicly support and endorse the boycott of Israel.
In 2005 Palestinians issued a call to the international community for a program and campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to be applied against Israel as a non-violent method to pressure Israel to end its violations of international law, respect Palestinian human rights and engage in fair negotiations for a just peace. The Palestinian call for BDS was based and inspired by the successful boycott of Apartheid South Africa. Since 2005,
Israel has suffered from a significant cultural boycott and an increasing economic boycott. Israel has subsequently passed a law, the "anti-boycott law", penalizing those that call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts against Israel - the law has been slammed by
Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch and others.
ISSUED BY MUHAMMED DESAI ON BEHALF OF BDS SOUTH AFRICA. FOR COMMENT: +27 (0) 842119988
BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL IN SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
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