Farewell, tour? Wary Israeli entertainers increasingly reluctant to face BDS abroad |
After hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza, musician Noam Tsuriely, a commando fighter and rapper, traveled to Prague in late November for a vacation and a single performance for the Jewish community.
By the end of his trip, he was hounded by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel legal group that seeks arrest warrants for Israeli soldiers traveling abroad.
“It didn’t scare me, and I wasn’t going to stop my trip because of a bunch of idiots,” said Tsuriely, who received help from the Israeli consulate in Prague. “But I said I would leave early if necessary, and that calmed my mother down.”
The classically-trained pianist and hip-hop artist knows now that he shared information about his Prague gig on an Israeli Facebook group that wasn’t secure enough.
“I was careful. But fear isn’t a consideration, because if it was, then I wouldn’t be a musician or a fighter,” said Tsuriely.
Israeli comedian Guy Hochman was reportedly held for six hours of questioning on January 19 upon arriving in Canada after a complaint was filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation.
The comedian was detained at the Toronto airport and was only let go after the Israeli consulate intervened.
Hochman later performed a gig for the local Jewish community, where anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside. One of the activists attacked him and injured his manager, Hochman wrote on social media.
Since then, Hochman has had two performances canceled in New York and Los Angeles, after pressure campaigns from anti-Zionist activists.
Fearlessness is increasingly a requirement for Israeli musicians touring abroad, where, in addition to legal warfare by groups such as the Hind Rajab Foundation, entertainers are subject to both overt and “soft” cultural boycotts since Hamas-led terrorists sparked the still-simmering conflict in Gaza with a bloody invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
While the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely held since October, some local........