Carlos O’Connell of the group Fontaines DC during the Romance European Tour 2024, 25 June 2024, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy. Photo: Emanuela Vertolli/SportReporter/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

More than 400 musicians have pulled their catalogues from streaming platforms in Israel as part of the “No Music for Genocide” campaign launched this week while the British band Massive Attack announced that it will fully boycott Spotify.

Arca, Fontaines DC, Kneecap, Primal Scream, and Faye Webster are among the artists who joined the cultural boycott initiative in protest of Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip, during the country’s war targeting Hamas terrorists who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2o23. The artists edited the release territories for their music to exclude Israel or sent geo-restriction requests to their distributor or label. They are encouraging other artists to do the same. A number of independent music labels have also joined the campaign.

Organizers of the global, volunteer-led initiative, which has no institutional backer, said they launched the campaign in response to what they claim is “genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel; and political repression of Pro-Palestine efforts wherever we live.”

“This tangible act is just one step toward honoring Palestinian demands to isolate and delegitimize Israel as it kills without consequence on the world stage,” organizers stated in a post on Instagram. “We don’t boycott to target individuals: this is a rejection of apartheid Israel’s cultural industry, which works hand in hand with global music and media institutions to whitewash apartheid and genocide. NO ART FOR APARTHEID, NO MUSIC FOR GENOCIDE.”

In a FAQ section on its website, the “No Music for Genocide campaign” claims it is not antisemitic to boycott Israel. Organizers also said their boycott efforts will unfortunately impact Arabs in Israel. However, “so far, we’ve concluded that geo-blocks of Israel do not impact the Occupied West Bank (or Gaza), based on all of the on-the-ground availability tests and Spotify API checks we’ve run,” they added. “There is a chance that some distributors and streaming services batch together Israel and Palestine.”

Meanwhile, Massive Attack asked its label, Universal Music Group, to remove the band’s music from not only all streaming platforms in Israel but also Spotify completely because the streamer’s CEO Daniel Ek has invested significantly in the military AI company Helsing. The band has boycotted performing in Israel since 1999.

“In our view, the historic precedent of effective artist action during apartheid South Africa and the apartheid, war crimes, and genocide now being committed by the state of Israel renders the ‘No Music for Genocide’ campaign imperative,” the band wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. “In the separate case of Spotify, the economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral & ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans & the creative endeavors of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies. Enough is more than enough.”

In the caption of the Instagram post, Massive Attack said the “No Music for Genocide” campaign is the “musician’s equivalent” to the recent Film Workers for Palestine campaign, in which more than 4,000 film workers vowed to boycott Israeli film institutions and companies. The band also drew parallels to other boycott efforts, including in apartheid South Africa.

“We’d appeal to all musicians to transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable & vital action to end the unspeakable hell being visited upon the Palestinians hour after hour,” Massive Attack stated in conclusion.