More Than 400 Artists Announce “No Music for Genocide” Israel Boycott

20 years into the ongoing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that targets Israel for policies of Palestinian apartheid, over 400 musicians have announced their plan to do extra boycotts with “No Music for Genocide,” a new and special streaming boycott that will definitely work this time.

The BDS movement was officially founded in 2005 by Omar Barghouti. Just as it is factual to say that Israel is currently committing war crimes in Gaza, it is also factual to say that by any objective measure BDS has failed. Over the last 20 years international pressure has successfully stifled Israeli exports, but during that period the government of Israel has become more isolated and authoritarian, as conditions in Palestine have deteriorated, first slowly, and then with horrifying speed.

Now, over 400 artists have asked that their music be geo-blocked from appearing on streaming services inside of Israel. This includes Massive Attack, Faye Webster, Arca, Rina Sawayama, Fontaines DC, Aminé, Kelela, Japanese Breakfast, MIKE, King Krule, Amyl and the Sniffers, MJ Lenderman, Kneecap, MØ, Erika de Casier, Mannequin Pussy, Liv.e, Wednesday, aja monet, and hundreds more.

“No Music For Genocide is a new cultural boycott initiative asking artists and rights-holders to remove their music from streaming platforms in Israel in response to the genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel; and political repression of Pro-Palestine efforts wherever we live,” organizers said in a statement. “Culture can’t stop bombs on its own, but it can help reject political repression, shift public opinion toward justice, and refuse the art-washing and normalization of any company or nation that commits crimes against humanity. This initiative is one part of a worldwide movement to erode the support Israel needs to continue its genocide.”

Any artist can participate, and can contact organizers at nomusicforgenocide.net.

While Netanyahu probably won’t have a change of heart now that he can’t listen to Jubilee, “No Music for Genocide” joins a growing list of entertainment movements attempting to do something — anything — to stop the ongoing starvation of the Palestinian people. Earlier this month, more than 4,000 filmmakers signed an open letter promising not to work with Israeli institutions “complicit” with genocide. Others have thrown their support behind Palestinian artists, with Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and more producing the Gaza war film The Voice of Hind Rajab.