Update: Note that the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has rejected Eric Burdon’s manager’s claims. See a portion of its statement, below.
At 72, Eric Burdon, former lead singer of the Animals, has canceled an August 1 Israel gig, Haaretz says, citing threats by supporters of BDS. I sure hope that his spokesperson is exaggerating, that these were not violent threats. But artists’ activities have been successfully politicized, and Burdon is obviously feeling the heat. Haaretz:
Former lead singer of The Animals Eric Burdon on Tuesday announced he is cancelling his planned concert in Israel, citing threats. According to his personal manager Marianna Burdon, he was pressured not to perform in Israel and ultimately chose to cancel the concert, which was to take place August 1.
“We are under increasing pressure, including many threatening emails that we are receiving on a daily basis. I wouldn’t want to put Eric in any danger” his manager wrote in a letter to Israeli members of Tislam, the band Burdon was scheduled to perform with
Burdon told two of the band members who he met with in Vienna last week that he was subject to threats not to perform…
From the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott:
Although we and our allies urge artists not to cross the international picket line by performing in Israel, and although we make sustained efforts to educate performers about the reason for boycott, we have not and never will issue any threats against anyone who does not heed the boycott call. Recent claims of threats from ex-Animals singer Eric Burdon in an article published by Ha’aretz are vague and unsubstantiated. We do not know if they are made up by media hostile to the BDS strategy, or by artists and/or their agents, or if they are inflated reports of remarks made by individuals who do not represent the movement. USACBI advances the BDS movement not through threats, but rather by exposing Israel’s wrongs, and promoting non-violent ways to redress them, and achieve the rights of the Palestinian people.
Why wasn’t Alicia Keys ‘threatened’?
This reeks of Reut Institute/SWU/NGO Monitor/etc. sock-puppetry.
How easy would it be to email these artists with threatening messages?
The agent should say WHO did the threatening right away. Otherwise, it’s Zionist bullshit.
This is a big victory to the BDS bullies and the Palestinians.
This is all over the net now, it’s about time people will know the real way the BDS works.
This is very strange. I wouldn’t peg Burden as one to walk away, but I haven’t heard of any threats from BDS supporters before.
Maybe he’s cancelling and using the threat thing as a means to save face with everyone.
Surprise surprise…
What do you want to bet that many or even most of these threats supposedly coming from pro-BDS sources are false flag ops, designed to discredit and demonize the BDS movement and to associate it with “the terrorists”? Standard operating procedure.
Track the threats back to the source and see who’s there. If the threats can’t be tracked back to the source, they are almost certainly part of a false flag campaign.