Israeli Arab singer Nasreen Qadri. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Nasreen Qadri, an Israeli Arab singer who was set to perform in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night with the British rock band Radiohead, slammed the anti-Israel BDS movement’s calls for the show to be cancelled in an op-ed for Newsweek. 

Qadri, a Muslim, was to perform alongside Jewish Israeli singer Dudu Tassa during the concert, in order to “bring a message of coexistence to every corner of the country.”

The Arab singer, who wrote she “was lucky to be born in Israel,” criticized boycott activists for “trying to divide us” and “trying to shut down the music.”

“I will not be a part of that,” she wrote. “Sadly, there are too many countries in the Middle East in which such a concert could have never taken place.”

Qadri’s criticism of BDS came a day after Michael Stipe, frontman of the American rock band R.E.M., voiced support for Radiohead’s decision to perform in Israel.

In April, a BDS petition against Radiohead’s Israel show was issued by former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, in a Twitter feud with British filmmaker Ken Loach, defended his band’s performance by asserting, “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than [US President Donald] Trump, but we still play in America.”