International Trance DJ Hardwell performing. Photo: Screenshot, Hardwell

International trance DJ Hardwell will perform in Tel Aviv on December 19th, despite pressure and petitions from anti-Israel boycott groups, trying to persuade him to cancel the show, the DJ and the concert’s promoters said.

The BDS challenge to the DJ was posted on Change.org, an online petition organizer, and inadvertently described how the DJ’s decision yesterday to perform validates Israel in the eyes of many music lovers: “Trance’s deep roots in Israel have only helped to normalize Israel’s image among trance artists and broader international community as a country that is progressive, democratic and is ordinary, if not peaceful… As you know, music cannot be isolated from politics. A visit to Israel, particularly now, is viewed by Israel, and internationally, as implicit support for Israeli policies and indifference to the victims of Israeli crimes,” the petition claimed.

Hardwell, real name Robbert van de Corput of the Netherlands, performed in Israel earlier this year and is already on the books for yet another Tel Aviv concert, January 14, 2014.

Watch a video below announcing the new tour dates: