BRITAIN: Palestinian Activists Call For Pet Shop Boys To Cancel Tel Aviv Concert

Pro-Palestinian activists are planning to picket a Pet Shop Boys appearance in London tonight in protest of the dance duo’s gig scheduled for June 28th in Tel Aviv.  From the protesters’ website:

The Pet Shop Boys – Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, recognised as the most successful duo in UK music history, are scheduled to perform in apartheid Israel to a segregated audience in Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena on 23rd June, 2013. We are asking them to open their eyes to the ugly reality of apartheid Israel, to cancel their concert and stand with the oppressed Palestinians. Join the multitude of artists who are respecting the Palestinian call to boycott Israel. We will be picketing their appearance at the screening of Battleship Potemkin at the British Film Institute (BFI) on the Southbank in London on 19th June.

Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant has responded on their own site:

I don’t agree with this comparison of Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. It’s a caricature. Israel has (in my opinion) some crude and cruel policies based on defence; it also has universal suffrage and equality of rights for all its citizens both Jewish and Arab. In apartheid-era South Africa, artists could only play to segregated audiences; in Israel anyone who buys a ticket can attend a concert. Neil x