How the Arab-Israeli conflict split the Western music industry

Military conflict in the Middle East has split the Western music industry. Never before have musicians opposed each other so emotionally. He talks about how the Arab-Israeli clash turned rock and pop upside down. Igor Gavrilov.

“I don’t envy this degree of heartlessness mixed with ignorance. Watching one of my heroes demonstrate it is very painful against the backdrop of grief for our dead and worries for our friends in Israel.” This is the commentary of the American singer Regina Spektor to the post of the Icelandic singer Björk, which appeared a month after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli territory.

Björk posted an image on her social media page titled “Palestine-Israeli Map 1946–2010.” The map is divided into four parts and shows what the ratio of territories controlled by Jews and Arabs looked like in 1946, 1947, 1967 and 2010. Many commentators are calling the widely circulated map “fake” and “propaganda.” “And that’s what you call [справедливым] division? are Björk’s only words accompanying the repost of the image. “How could you go from complete silence about the massacre, rape and torture of innocent Jews… to publishing fake infographics based on the fantasies of propagandists? I don’t know,” Regina Spektor comments on her senior colleague’s post.

Björk is far from the only contemporary music star to speak out in support of Palestine in the context of today’s phase of conflict in the Middle East, and a number of classics are moving from words to action. Brian Eno, one of the most influential producers in the history of popular music, decided to organize an entire “Voices from Gaza” festival. It will take place on Friday in London. The musician describes it as “An evening of verbatim testimonies from Gaza with live music and readings.” In addition to Eno himself, the participation of various artists of Palestinian origin is planned. Funds from ticket sales will go to the British human rights organization Amos Trust, which has launched an “emergency Christmas fundraiser for Gaza.”

Among the 1.8 thousand comments under the announcement of the festival on Brian Eno’s Facebook, you can find a remark from director Oksana Bychkova: “Dear Brian, I have been admiring your music for many years and am your absolute fan. What do you think about the kidnapped people and murdered children in Israel on October 7? Do you know about this? About the Nova festival? Among the comments there are also more harsh ones: “Brian Eno used to embody everything I wanted to see in an artist, now he embodies everything I hate”; or “I’ll sell all my Brian Eno CDs and donate the money to Israel.”

But much more important is the opinion of the musicians, for whom Brian Eno did more than for anyone else. At one of U2’s recent concerts, its leader Bono dedicated the song “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” to visitors to the Supernova festival. “These were people of our breed, people of music,” said the singer. In the song’s lyrics, he replaced the line “Early morning, April 4th” (the date of Martin Luther King’s assassination) with “Early morning, October 7th.”

Not a single crisis of global significance in recent years – neither environmental problems, nor COVID-19, nor the conflict in Ukraine – has caused such a split among performers of this scale as the crack that, after October 7, 2023, ran through the hearts of the most pressing, most concerned about global problems of musicians.

In the first days after the invasion, major music media and important artists began publishing statements, often simply quoting a variety of sources indiscriminately, be it reputable newspapers, obscure websites or radical organizations. For example, actress Florence Pugh and singer Cat Power reposted a fake story about a hospital with 500 dead after the news was denied by serious media. Tilda Swinton, Massive Attack leader Robert del Naya and 2,000 other artists signed an open letter calling for an end to the shelling of Gaza, which did not mention Hamas or their invasion of Israel. On the other hand, Madonna, Mark Ronson and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood condemned Hamas.

“Criticism of Israel and fierce support for Gaza come mostly from young indie musicians, long known for their leftist views, while major artists do not speak out at all. But Israel is supported mainly by Hollywood artists in their late thirties,” the Banka-Parilka Telegram channel, which tracks the accounts of thousands of musicians, wrote at the very beginning of the conflict. “This war divided the pop industry into two camps and showed the world how weak many celebrities understand the news agenda and how poorly they are able to filter information.”

At the moment, in addition to Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Bjork, pro-Palestinian or abstract peacekeeping statements without mentioning the Hamas attack have been made by such figures as Rosalia, Dua Lipa, Michael Stipe (ex-REM), Sevdaliza, Phoebe Bridgers and many American rappers, Islamist sympathizers. The Weeknd donated $2.5 million to help the residents of Gaza, without in any way indicating his attitude to the actions of Hamas. By December, there was a noticeable numerical superiority on the side of those who support Palestine, but on the opposite flank were Bono, Madonna, Katy Perry and a number of other heavyweights. One can debate whether the pro-Palestinian flank is sufficiently informed and whether the pro-Israeli flank is sufficiently empathic, but such disunity among yesterday’s comrades cannot but affect the industry. At stake are placements on festival posters and label catalogues, joint projects and TV shows. And it seems that 2024 will not bring any truce on this front.