American Lawmakers in Florida are trying to cancel Lorde’s upcoming shows in the state after the Kiwi songstress and superstar called off her performance in Israel.
Lorde cancelled her Tel Aviv concert in December, following pressure from fans and activists in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is making a stand against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
The decision has seen Republican state Rep. Randy Fine this week pushing for Miami and Tampa to cancel Lorde’s April shows, the Orlando Weekly reported.
Some #Israelis want to apply their draconian anti-#BDS law to penalize #NewZealand activists who asked #Lorde to cancel her TelAviv show. Israel not only violates #Palestinian rights, it wants to extend its long arm of oppression to deny free speech to NZ https://t.co/mAcgijnw7U
— James J. Zogby (@jjz1600) February 1, 2018
Fine based his actions on a Florida law which barred companies that received state funds from doing business over $1 million with organisations associated with BDS.
“When Lorde joined the boycott in December, she and her companies became subject to that statute,” Fine told Orlando Weekly.
“The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and anti-Semitism, and I look forward to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority complying with the law and cancelling these concerts.
“Florida has no tolerance for anti-Semitism and boycotts intended to destroy the State of Israel.”
Florida lawmaker wants to force Lorde to cancel her shows because of her stance on the BDS movement https://t.co/gzfHm5fbyN pic.twitter.com/SveoWawJ2k
— The IMEU (@theIMEU) February 10, 2018
Florida is one of 20 states with a law in place to deal with businesses that boycott Israel.
In a statement released in December last year Lorde said that “the right decision at this time” was to cancel her June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv.
The Grammy-award winner said that after having “lots of discussions” about the matter, she was “not too proud to admit I didn’t make the right call on this one,” referring to her initial decision to hold the concert.
The decision of a superstar like Lorde to respect the #BDS campaign is a clear sign of its growing power — a fact evidently unnerving Israel and its supporters #BoycottIsrael https://t.co/X4CE679zJY
— greenleftweekly (@greenleftweekly) February 8, 2018
The cancellation was welcomed by members of the BDS movement.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel posted a statement on Twitter thanking the artist for “heeding appeals from your fans against Israel’s art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians.”
Other artists to have boycotted Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians included Roger Waters, Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello.
(New Zealand Herald, PC, Social Media)
Americans take a critical look at your government. Mr. Fines is advocating against your legal democratic right to boycott something you disagree with. If a government supports repression of democracy and freedom of expression in another country then you can expect your own democratic freedoms to removed by such a government. The American government supports Zionism, as Zionist Israel is conducting long-term political goals that the American government wants to implement at home. Being against the Zionist experiment in Palestine is not anti-Semetic; it is against state sponsored colonialism and it is in support of United Nations resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Chris, here in the USA we are dumb-founded & blown away by the escalating & blatant pandering to Israel that is now moving full-steam ahead into transparent waters. Much of this is coinciding with many Americans gaining first-time knowledge of just how many privately funded NGOs and “think tanks” exist in just Washington, D.C., all for the benefit of Israel. We are not even a real country – we are merely a corporation being run by a puppet-regime theatrically-staged White House executive administration. We are not a democracy & haven’t been for a long time, only it’s never been this blatantly apparent until Zionist-controlled, owned & operated Donald J. Trump took office.
Why, in Heaven’s name, would Lorde want to play in Florida anyway? I think this may be a moot point.
How about let’s boycott Florida? Let’s go there, then.
You guys are catching up, I’ll give you that.
It’s a shame for America cities to bow the pressure of the heinous crooks minipulated government policy against the musicians and artists. The heinously greedy crooks minipulation of the United States of America government’s must be stopped. It doesn’t represent the Democratic principles of America once up held as national values . America no longer have democracy anymore