Madonna is being urged to cancel her upcoming performance in Israel amid the ongoing human rights issue among Palestinian female artists. The award-winning singer is set to perform at Eurovision this week.
On Monday, the Institute for Middle East Understanding published an open letter signed by 58 Palestinian female artists urging Madonna to cancel her appearance. The letter follows a week-long social media campaign using the hashtag “MadonnaDontGo.” There have also been calls to boycott the entire Eurovision event.
However, the Israeli government said that it will not allow activists who plan to disrupt the competition into the country. The boycott is part of a larger Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which was inspired by the South African anti-apartheid activism, which calls for the boycott of Israeli goods from Israeli institutions that are complicit in Palestinian human rights violations.
Those who are supporting the boycott have accused Israel of art washing apartheid and believe that if Madonna pushes through with her May 18 show in Tel Aviv, she would be helping in obscuring war crimes in the country.
“The far-right Israeli government and its supporters would love nothing more than to use your iconic artistic achievement and global philanthropy to obscure its crimes against humanity,” the open letter reads. “When the walls come crashing down and freedom and justice finally ring, we invite you to come and share your music with all of us on this land,” the letter added.
Among the letter’s signee is Cherien Dabis, an actress and filmmaker who began her career in the industry as a writer for “The L Word.” Dabis said that if Madonna really wants to stand for equality and peace and wants to be an agent of change, she needs to stand alongside those who stood up to racism and imperialism and choose the right side of history.
In 2017, a similar thing happened with Lorde. The singer was supposed to perform in Israel, but human rights activists asked her to cancel her performance, and she did.
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