Lorde Bows To Political Pressure, Cancels Israel Concert

New Zealand singer Lorde canceled a performance in Israel scheduled for next summer after caving to pressure from pro-Palestinian activists.

The NY Post reports the singer said in a statement Sunday that “the right decision at this time” was to cancel her concert, scheduled for June in Tel Aviv.

Her announcement followed calls by proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to cancel her performance over Israel’s human rights record.

Lorde joins artists including Roger Waters, Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello in boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.

Lorde cancels her concert in Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, over human rights concerns. But she goes for a gig to Russia, a brutal dictatorship complicit in the mass murder in Syria.

That's when pro-human rights means just anti-Israel. #BDSFail

— Julie Lenarz (@MsJulieLenarz) December 26, 2017

Lorde’s cancellation was welcomed by members of the BDS movement. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel posted a statement on Twitter thanking the artist for “heeding appeals from your fans against Israel’s art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians.”

Boycott this bigot: Lorde caves to BDS pressure, cancels Israel concert https://t.co/eugOCJPRBu

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) December 24, 2017

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev said she hoped Lorde would reconsider her decision.

“Lorde, I expect you to be a pure heroine, like the title of your first album, a pure culture hero, free of any external — and if I may add, delusional — political considerations,” Regev said in a statement.