Since September, more than 1,000 artists and labels including Lorde, Björk and Massive Attack have joined an international initiative to remove their music from Israel. The boycott, called No Music for Genocide, is straightforward: Artists are asking their labels and distributors to geo-block their music so it cannot be streamed in Israel. According to the movement's website, this act is "just one step toward honoring Palestinian demands to isolate and delegitimize Israel." Despite a fragile ceasefire currently in place, No Music for Genocide organizers say they're continuing the boycott amidst additional airstrikes in Gaza.
"Boycott is one of the most effective and enduring efforts that one can take to fight a militarized, overtly violent, three-headed monster of a system," blues poet Aja Monet, one of the participants, tells NPR. "We're in a place where capitalism rules everything. The most effective thing we can do is to be strategic about where we put our resources."
The musicians' coalition coincides with a similar pledge from some Hollywood stars to boycott Israel's state-funded film industry. In September, an independent United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and that countries helping to arm the Israeli government, like the United States, are complicit in the violence. Israel strongly denies that it is committing genocide — and some Israelis say the artists' efforts are misguided, because the boycott affects even those who oppose the war. In a statement to NPR, the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. condemned the musician-led protest.
"The attempt to boycott Israeli culture under the banner of 'No Music for Genocide' is discriminatory, immoral and misguided," reads the statement. "Such boycotts do nothing to advance peace or improve the lives of either Israelis or Palestinians. On the contrary, they deepen division and harm the very people they claim to support."
Although the State Department also rejected the U.N. report, some American musicians are demanding action and accountability over the U.S. government's role in the attacks.
"As a U.S citizen, I have a connection to this genocide that is happening using my tax dollars. As a musician, I am sensitive — I think that is necessary for making art," composer and singer-songwriter Julia Holter, another participant in the campaign, said in a statement shared with NPR. "Every day for over a year and a half now, we have seen horror stories abound in Gaza, and every malnourished baby I see with horrific injuries, every mother or father I see hovered over their child targeted by a sniper makes me think of my child, makes me think of anyone I have ever loved. I feel a responsibility to do something, however small it may be."
Historic precedents
The No Music for Genocide movement, which is a decentralized volunteer network of musicians and labels, cites the success of cultural boycotts against South Africa during apartheid as a major inspiration. While artists like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba made music a core tenet of anti-apartheid activism, international artists also played an important role. In 1985, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt led dozens of musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis and Rubén Blades, in the Artists United Against Apartheid effort to record "Sun City." The hit single referred to a luxury whites-only resort where artists including Queen and Linda Ronstadt had performed; the song's lyrics criticized their actions and pledged to avoid playing there until the end of apartheid.
In 2023, artists ranging from Pedro Pascal to Quinta Brunson called for a ceasefire amidst the conflict in Gaza, but No Music for Genocide is a musician-led boycott. In a statement shared with NPR, vocalist, guitarist and boycott participant Marisa Dabice of the band Mannequin Pussy said mainstream artists could make a real difference.
"Without the participation of major label artists, this boycott cannot grow in the way it needs to make the largest possible impact," she wrote. "We live in a day and age where unified direct action can make an impact —- we just have to be focused and unrelenting."
The No Music for Genocide website notes that all three major U.S. labels — Sony Music, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group — ceased operations in Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine and pledged to support humanitarian relief efforts. The group argues the same should be done on behalf of Palestinians.
Yasir Razak of the shoegaze band Nabeel, one of the artists geo-blocking his music from Israel, says he sees a link between the war in Gaza and the way Western powers have historically intervened in the Middle East. Razak was born in Baghdad around the time of the first Gulf War and grew up in the U.S. during the Iraq War. Although the Iraq War and the current conflict are markedly different, he says, they're not entirely separate.
"What makes me most sad is the idea that folks in other countries can't be seen," he says, adding that this is often the case with people from the Middle East. "We've gone to great lengths to dehumanize them to the point where we can carry out these kinds of attacks against the majority popular opinion."
In September, a New York Times and Siena University poll found that a majority of American voters oppose continued U.S. economic and military support for Israel in the war, a reversal from public opinion shortly after the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7 in 2023, which killed 1,200 people according to the Israeli government. In July, a Gallup poll found that 60% of Americans disapprove of Israel's military actions in Gaza which have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Razak says he has mostly received positive feedback from his fans for participating in the boycott. One downside, he notes, is that some digital service providers include Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in the geo-block as part of Israel. After hearing directly from an affected listener, Razak found a workaround to provide free downloads of his music on the music distribution platform Bandcamp. But he says beyond the logistics of where the music is or isn't accessible, there is an underlying anxiety that comes with publicly voicing his stance against the Israeli state. (Several artists NPR reached out to declined to comment on the boycott).
"Ultimately, this is a humanitarian issue. We've all been seeing videos coming out of Gaza. We've heard members of the Israeli government speaking about what their intentions are. I think any right-minded person would look at that and say this is something to take a stand against," Razak says. "But the attempt to conflate that in any way with hatred or antisemitism has been so dangerous and paralyzing, and fear-inducing for those of us who really feel like there's a moral obligation for us to stand against."
Backlash against musicians
In April, Cornell University dropped R&B singer Kehlani as the headliner of a campus concert. In a statement, University President Michael I. Kotlikoff wrote that Kehlani "espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos, and on social media." Kehlani has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians; the video for their 2024 song "Next 2 U" features a quote from Palestinian-American poet Hala Alyan, along with the phrase "Long Live the Intifada." (The Arabic word generally translates to "uprising" and has a long history within the context of the war in Gaza.)
During their performance at NPR's Tiny Desk last year, Kehlani wore a keffiyeh — the traditional Arab headdress that's become a symbol for Palestinians — and stopped to address the audience. "I want to take a second to say: Free Palestine. Free Congo. Free Sudan. Free Yemen. Free Hawaii. Free Guam," Kehlani said. "It's deeper than this. I need everybody that's here right now, everybody that's watching, to step up, to use their voices."
After Cornell's decision, New York nonprofit City Parks Foundation, which organizes the SummerStage concert series, also cancelled Kehlani's scheduled Pride performance following pressure from the mayor's office and citing "security concerns." Brooklyn-based rapper MIKE, who is participating in No Music for Genocide, curates an annual hip-hop festival in partnership with SummerStage. He tells NPR he cancelled this year's edition in solidarity with Kehlani.
"You have to sacrifice for a bigger purpose," he says. "One of the things that I see people trying to do with hip-hop is further detach it from its political foundation, its anti-establishment foundation."
MIKE says music played a key role in shaping his political awareness, and he hopes his involvement in the geo-block movement stirs something in listeners. He's already received messages from fans in Israel over the removal of his music; he says he hopes the boycott inspires deeper reflection on the oppression of Palestinians and all peoples.
Impact on Israeli music fans
But on the ground in Israel, the boycott has led to some confusion. Linda Dayan, a reporter for Haaretz based in Tel Aviv, says that while most participating artists' music has been pulled from SoundCloud, several discographies are still available on other streaming platforms like Spotify. Dayan says blocking the music is "just a punishment" for the many Israelis who have long-opposed the war in Gaza.
"I think if [artists] really do want to make an impact, they should be putting their money behind their morals when it comes to either donating to initiatives that ensure that Gazans can get the aid that they so badly need, and organizations — especially within Israel — who are doing this work on the ground, who are organizing these protests," Dayan says.
She points to groups like Standing Together, a grassroots organization of Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel working to promote peace and unity. Dayan says she worries that instead of bringing people together, the boycott could further alienate Israelis.
"There is a really big narrative among the Netanyahu government and among factions of the right: 'They don't hate you because of what we do, they hate you because of who you are,'" Dayan says. "These boycotts that target wide swathes of people without considering the work that they're personally doing with Palestinians, the work that they are doing against the government or toward a just peace is giving credence to that idea."
For several participating artists, No Music for Genocide is not an end-all solution, but they say it's an important form of nonviolent action. Aja Monet says the boycott is only one part of a much larger collective resistance.
"Just as much as we're talking about what's happening in Palestine, we're talking about the rising state of fascism in this country," she says. "We're talking about poverty. We're talking about the books that are being banned. We're talking about the immigrant community that's being attacked and kidnapped from their homes in their street corners. All of this is from the same arm of violence and threat and terror. All of those things concern us and we want an end to it."
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