CODEPINK Urges Reggae Singer Ziggy Marley to Cancel Israel Concerts
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Ziggy Marley. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The US-based anti-Israel group CODEPINK published an open letter on its website on Monday that urged musician Ziggy Marley, the son of late reggae icon Bob Marley, to cancel his upcoming concerts in Israel.
CODEPINK — a far-left anti-war group that protests Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians — claimed that if Ziggy went forward with his scheduled July 31 and August 1 concerts in Israel, he would be using his name and talents to “whitewash Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, including ongoing massacres taking place right now in Gaza.”
The letter also alleged that Palestinians living “under Israel’s system of occupation” faced a “nightmare of daily humiliations,” from Israel’s “apartheid” system of government.
The letter further said, “Palestinians are calling on the international community to support their struggle for freedom and equality in the same way that was effective in ending South African apartheid…You canceling your shows in Israel can make a significant impact towards ending Israeli oppression and violence.”
The open letter already has 3,387 signatures from pro-Palestinian supporters. CODEPINK also posted messages on Twitter addressed to Ziggy’s mother Rita Marley and his brother Stephen, asking them to stop the Grammy-winning musician from performing in Israel.
A similar letter calling on Ziggy to cancel his Israel shows was written in April, shortly after the concert dates were announced, by CODEPINK co-founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, and the organization’s national co-director, Ariel Gold.
Ziggy has not responded to CODEPINK’s messages. As The Algemeiner previously reported, the musician is a longtime backer of Israel and said he started feeling a connection to the Jewish state when he was a child through the help of his mother and father, whose own father was Jewish.
The musician said in 2015 that he would never stop supporting the Jewish state, “[n]o matter what anybody says or does.” He is also married to an Israeli, and said he and his wife were raising their four kids in accordance with both of their traditions.
