Eric Burdon performs in Scotland (Edinburgh) tonight in the only UK date of a tour that was to have included a gig in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 1st. Palestine solidarity activists welcome yesterday’s announcement that he has pulled out of the Tel Aviv engagement “under increasing pressure” to cancel, according to his Manager.
According to Israeli daily, Haaretz, “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.”
The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign was among those who wrote, and invited others to write, to Eric Burdon before he came to Edinburgh asking him to remain true to his long-term hostility to racism and Jim Crow in the US South.
We welcome Eric Burdon’s decision to follow in the tracks of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana, Gil Scott-Heron, Annie Lennox, the Pixies, Massive Attack and many others in refusing to perform in apartheid Israel. This is another small crack in the wall that imprisons the Palestinian people.
He will now be unreservedly welcome in Edinburgh tonight.
Appeal from many Scots and others to Eric Burdon to boycott Israel.
http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php/solidarity/boycott/cultural/music/1586-eric-burdon-don-t-play-in-tel-aviv-on-august-1st