Nick Cave has condemned the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, calling the cultural boycott of Israel “cowardly and shameful”.
Writing on his website in response to a fan's question, the singer, who played concerts in Tel Aviv last November with his band the Bad Seeds, said these did not signify support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
He also accused the BDS campaign of attempting to “bully, shame and silence musicians” by attempting to stop them performing in the Jewish State.
He shared an email he had sent to prominent BDS campaigner and musician Brian Eno.
Cave wrote to Eno: "I do not support the current government in Israel, yet do not accept that my decision to play in the country is any kind of tacit support for that government’s policies.”
Cave added the BDS campaign's pressure on him not to perform in Israel was part of the reason he went ahead with the gig.
He called the performances "a principled stand against those who wish to bully, shame and silence musicians”, telling Eno the boycott “risks further entrenching positions in Israel in opposition to those you support”.
The former Birthday Party singer then urged artists who objected to his views to “go to Israel and tell the press and the Israeli people how you feel about their current regime”.
He said: “Then do a concert on the understanding that the purpose of your music was to speak to the Israeli people’s better angels … Perhaps the Israelis would respond in a wholly different way than they would to just yet more age-old rejectionism.”
Cave added that he supported the Palestinian cause and that Palestinian suffering “is ended via a comprehensive and just solution, one that involves enormous political will on both sides”.
He also highlighted his own work that raised £150,000 for the pro-Palestine Hoping Foundation.
Cave also accused Eno – a former member of Roxy Music whom Cave called his musical hero – of “weaponising” music.
"What has brought us to the point where certain musicians feel it is ethically sound to use forms of coercion and intimidation, in the form of ‘open’ letters, on fellow musicians who don’t agree with their point of view? … I simply could not treat my Israeli fans with the necessary contempt to do Brian Eno’s bidding,” Cave wrote.
In the past, Eno has claimed BDS “has nothing to do with ‘silencing’ artists – a charge I find rather grating when used in a context where a few million people are permanently and grotesquely silenced".
He added: "Israel has consistently – and lavishly – used cultural exchange as a form of ‘hasbara’ [propaganda] to improve the image of the country abroad, and to ‘show Israel’s prettier face’, in the words of a foreign ministry official.”
Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, also defended performing in Israel last year.
He said: “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government”.
Other musicians have recently pulled out of concerts following discussions about the boycott and Israel-Palestine conflict, including New Zealand singer Lorde, who cancelled a Tel Aviv concert for June this year.
