“Good on ya Nick!”
No matter the opposing odds and tough terrain, Aussies charge ahead. They did it a 100 years ago in Beersheba in helping to boot the Ottoman Turks out of Palestine and they did it again – this time on a Saturday November night on stage in Tel Aviv Israel – by giving the finger to BDS.
Following the sounds of Waltzing Matilde and Hatikva playing out on the 31st October 2017 at the historic battlefield, a thankful Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu in the presence of the Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, said:
“Exactly 100 years ago brave ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers liberated Beersheba for the sons and daughters of Abraham and opened the gateway for the Jewish people to re-enter the stage of history,”
This week another Australian, Nick Cave – a musician – performed to a sold-out audience at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Cave and his Bad Seeds band kicked off their two-day concert series taking the audience on a musical journey with songs both old and new. Cave defied pressure from the BDS movement and said he came to Israel – not despite of – but “because of BDS.”
If his ancestors took on the Ottoman Turks a 100 years ago, Roger Waters and hid BDS cohorts were little match for this rocker.
Listening to Cave, one could imagine hearing the century-old sounds of galloping horseman on the ‘CHARGE!’, the rat-a-tat of machinegun fire, and even the smell of cordite.
Waters Under the Bridge
Nick Cave describes his Israel performances as a “Principled Stand,” and accuses Roger Waters of “Censoring Musicians”.
“If you do play Israel,” he says, “you must go through a sort of public humiliation from Roger Waters and Co.” Despite the backlash, he nevertheless decided to play in Israel “because it suddenly became very important to me to make a stand against those people who are trying to censor musicians.”
Back in February, ‘Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ announced a European tour with plans to perform in Tel Aviv. In response, several artists—including Roger Waters, Thurston Moore, Tunde Adebimpe from the American indie rock band ‘TV on the Radio’ – signed an ‘Artists for Palestine’ open letter urging Cave to cancel the tour.
This had as much effect as would ‘requesting’ the ANZAC horseman, “to hold it”!
Cave was not caving in.
Calling a press conference, the rocker said “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 make a stand against those people who are trying to shut down musicians; to bully musicians, to censor musicians, and to silence musicians.”
He went on to say that he “loves Israel,” and that he wanted to take “a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians.” He concluded by inferring the BDS Movement’s strategy is backfiring.
“So really, you could say, in a way, that the BDS made me play Israel.”
BDS “Stinks”
Cave explained how he decided on his position regarding Israel after being contacted by the English musician and BDS supporter, Brian Eno. “I received a letter three years ago from Brian, who asked me to sign a list of people called ‘Artists against,’ no, ‘Artists for Palestine.’ And he sent me that list, and I just didn’t – on a very intuitive level – did not want to sign that list. There was something that stunk about that list. And so, I wrote back and said, ‘I don’t like lists, I don’t want to sign your list.”
It did not end there.
“And then it occurred to me that I’m not signing the list, but I’m also not playing Israel, and that to me felt cowardly. So, after a lot of thought, a lot of consideration of the whole thing, I rang up my people and said, ‘We’re doing a European tour — add Israel,’ because it suddenly became very important to me to make a stand against those people who are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians and to silence musicians.”
Cave Connecting
“At the end of the day, there are 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.”
Cave also talked about his first experiences with Israel, during his band’s first two shows in the country. “We came to Israel 20 years ago or so, did a couple tours of Israel. I felt a huge connection with Israel. Not just ‘people-talk’ of loving a country, but I just felt on some sort of level, a connection that I can’t actually really describe.”
‘Take That’, BDS
Following Nick Cave’s successful tour in Tel Aviv, in the next few months, the following is set to perform in Israel: Take That, Kygo, Foreigner, Brian Adams and Bon Jovi.
Waters’ rantings are only revealing the failure of his BDS crusade. Pretty much ‘Waters off a duck’s back’.
In keeping with the lyrics of Rhianna who has performed numerous times in Israel:’:
“Don’t Stop The Music”
By David E. Kaplan
