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Bon Jovi in Boycott-Israel Tug-of-War

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Bon Jovi band is scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 3, 2015.

An online petition calling for Bon Jovi to cancel their upcoming concert in Israel in October, has over 1000 signatories. While pro-Israel groups beg the band to not boycott the only democratic country in the Middle East.

The petition, created by The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, asks the band to “reconsider their concert in apartheid Israel, until Israel complies with international law and respects the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people.”

In May, Lauryn Hill cancelled her show in Israel after coming under pressure from pro-Palestinian groups.

“When deciding to play the region, my intention was to perform in both Tel Aviv and Ramallah,” she explained. “Setting up a performance in the Palestinian Territory, at the same time as our show in Israel, proved to be a challenge. I’ve wanted very much to bring our live performance to this part of the world, but also to be a presence supporting justice and peace.”

It is very important to me that my presence or message not be misconstrued, or a source of alienation to either my Israeli or my Palestinian fans,” she continued. “For this reason, we have decided to cancel the upcoming performance in Israel, and seek a different strategy to bring my music to ALL of my fans in the region.”

“May healing, equanimity, and the openness necessary for lasting resolution and reconciliation come to this region and its people,” the singer concluded.

Many international artists have recently come under pressure to cancel concerts in Israel. Earlier this year, former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters accused Robbie Williams of “a chilling indifference” to Palestinian children ahead of the latter’s concert in Israel.

In an open letter published on Salon.com, Waters wrote that going ahead with the concert “would be giving your tacit support to the deaths of over 500 Palestinian children last summer in Gaza.” (i24news)

In response, a counter-petition was launched by GA-GA for Israel as a way to strike back at the unrelenting efforts to delegitimize and ultimately eliminate the small Jewish state. The letter to Bon Jovi is published as an open letter and was additionally emailed on July 8, 2015 to the band’s agent as well as to keyboardist David Bryan Rashbaum, the band’s sole Jewish member who has been with Bon Jovi since 1973.

The grassroots Israel advocacy group GA-GA for Israel galvanizes 1,300 individuals to fight the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel by donating their NAMES. Headed by Journalist Aliza Davidovit, this is one of the group’s many successful signature campaigns which include some very publicized letters to Fox News journalist Sean Hannity, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder (in braille), Elton John and to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, just to list a few—(see Harper’s reply).

1300 Israel supporters sign on to a letter to the Bon Jovi band urging it to remain steadfast in its decision to perform as scheduled in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 3, 2015,winding up a 13-country concert tour. The letter was addressed to keyboardist David Bryan whom Davidovit had once interviewed.

The signature campaign for the letter was launched as a Facebook event but not isolated to it. Names have poured in via diverse means including emails, texts, Twitter, multiple Facebook posts & phone.

“We promised never again,” Davidovit says. “Now that we have our own homeland—’for Zion’s sake’—we are compelled by history, prophecy, and accountability, to ‘not be silent.'”

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