Pro-Palestine campaigners plan to protest at Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ concert at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on Sunday night.
Groups including Show Israeli Genocide The Red Card and Scottish Sport For Palestine will gather outside the venue to urge fans to boycott Cave for allegedly “normalising Israel’s war campaign and illegal occupation”.
They have also written to Cave asking him not to perform in Israel “until it abides by international law” amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The boycott of Israel is working as, internationally, people are choosing to withdraw their money from products and services linked to a genocidal illegal occupation
Cave does not have any concerts scheduled in Israel, but said in an interview earlier this year that he finds it “difficult” to “punish ordinary people because of the acts of their government”.
Protesters referred to his comments in the interview with the Reason podcast, during which the 67-year-old also said he is “no friend of the government in Israel”.
It comes after the Australian singer and his band played two gigs in the country on their 2017 Skeleton Tree tour, which Cave said at the time were in protest at the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The movement, which counts Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters as a supporter, urges artists not to perform in the country due to the ongoing conflict.
Prior to those concerts, an open letter to Cave by Artists For Palestine UK – which counts Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Waters among its members – urged him to cancel the show “while apartheid remains”.
In a press conference ahead of the 2017 gigs, Cave said he had previously been reluctant to perform in Israel, but went on to say: “After a lot of thought and consideration I rang up my people and said we’re doing a European tour and Israel.
“Because it suddenly became very important to me to make a stand against those people that are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians and to silence musicians.
“At the end of the day there’s maybe two reasons why I’m here: one is that I love Israel and I love Israeli people, and two is to make a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians.
“So really you could say in a way that the BDS made me play Israel.”
Maree Shepherd, of Show Israeli Genocide The Red Card, one of the protesting groups, said Cave had shown a “lack of care” with his recent comments, and added she is “stunned as to how an apparently intelligent human can make such astonishingly ridiculous statements”.
“The boycott of Israel is working as, internationally, people are choosing to withdraw their money from products and services linked to a genocidal illegal occupation,” she said.
“This week, an Israeli player, Shalom Ben Ami, withdrew from competing at a World Bowls Tour contest in Scotland after our campaign saw more than 4,000 people sign a petition against his country’s participation.
“That is the power of boycott and campaigning at a time when the majority of world leaders are happy to condone a livestreamed genocide.”
The SEC welcomes many and varied performers, artists and speakers to its venues and believes that all have the right to freedom of expression
Scottish Event Campus (SEC), which runs the OVO Hydro, told the PA news agency it “expresses no view” on the opinions of its performers.
An SEC statement read: “The SEC welcomes many and varied performers, artists and speakers to its venues and believes that all have the right to freedom of expression.
“The SEC expresses no view on any content, beliefs or values of any performance or performer.”
Nick Cave has been contacted for comment.
