Mali’s internationally celebrated afro-pop singer, Salif Keita, has cancelled his Israeli gig at Israel’s “Season of Culture” music festival. On Thursday (22 August) the Israeli festival organisers announced via their official FaceBook page that a few hours before boarding a plane to Israel: “the musician from Mali, Salif Keita, decided to respect the cultural boycott of Israel and cancel his participation in the [Israeli] festival”.
Reaction to Keita’s Israel Boycott
One irate Israeli concert-goer, Meytal Hazut, immediately responded to the news of Keita’s cancellation saying: “Next time don’t sell us tickets for performances of pussies“. On the Israeli news website that broke the story of Keita’s cancellation (www.ynet.co.il) there were further negative comments coming from Israeli supporters, including this blatantly racist one: “let him [Keita] go back to the trees he came down from – we don’t need him here [in Israel]“.
On the other end of the spectrum, Ronnie Barkan, also an Israeli but part of the human rights organisation ‘Boycott From Within” (in support of the Palestinian struggle and the boycott of Israel) welcomed Keita’s cancellation saying: “We [progressive Israelis] wholeheartedly thank Salif Keita, the ‘Golden Voice of Africa’, who, according to Israeli media, chose to take a stand against [Israeli] apartheid and express his solidarity with the oppressed [Palestinians]. There have been several cancellations during the past weeks [see left handside column], which either explicitly or implicitly send out a clear and resonating message that the prolonged systematic denial [by Israel] of fundamental human rights cannot be given legitimacy. Mr. Keita is the first performer to join the growing boycott of Israel following the recent public appeal on Monday by Pink Floyd’s frontman Roger Waters [see left handside column]. We urge every conscientious artist out there to join the cultural boycott against Israeli occupation and apartheid, and refrain from performing here until equality, freedom and justice are guaranteed for ALL the sons and daughters of this land.”
After Keita’s cancellation, Farid Esack speaking on behalf of BDS South Africa to the Anadolu Press Agency welcomed the news and also clarified that: “We did not intimidate the musician into canceling his performance in Israel as may have been suggested by the musician’s manager by some media…we only wrote to him and appealed via a –publicly available– letter [see link in left hand side column]. Any insinuations to the contrary are simply false.”.
French human rights activist and part of BDS France, Imen Habib also welcomed the cancellation: “We, as ‘BDS France’, together with our comrades from ‘BDS South Africa’ and the larger international BDS movement all called on Salif Keita to not support apartheid [Israel]. We welcome that Keita has cancelled…”.
In cancelling on Israel, Salif Keita joins a growing list of artists and creatives who have respected the boycott of Israel including award-winning singer, Stevie Wonder; Jazz artist, Cassandra Wilson; musician, Elvis Costello; author of ‘The Color Purple’, Alice Walker; scientist, Stephen Hawking; and most recently, film director, Mira Nair.