In over twenty years of touring, I have never experienced anything like this.
But this is not an isolated incident. For decades, activists, poets, writers, musicians and artists who stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people have had to suffer the consequences. Many paid a much higher price than me.
Looking back over the last three years, the only real regret I have is not speaking out publicly when the Zionists were under the table. At the time, I didn’t think that centering what was happening to me was worth distracting from the genocide in Palestine.
But the intimidation, manipulation, and repression I experienced is part of how those in power keep artists silent. This is their main tactic to keep us under control. Shut up and dribble, or you will be punished.
But at this point, it’s been three years that I don’t care about maintaining relationships, professional or personal, with anyone who doesn’t advocate for a free Palestine.
I would rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationship with Israel more than Palestinian human life.
We live in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech. Yet we have reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome, and which human lives are worth defending.
Today it is Palestine. What will happen tomorrow?
For these owners, the words Free Palestine represent a threat. Not because they put anyone in danger, but because these words challenge the systems of power on which they have built their fortunes.
The tides are turning. Just three nights ago, Abdul El-Sayed won his Senate race with a platform that included ending the genocide in Gaza and stopping U.S. arms sales to Israel. AIPAC spent $42 million trying to defeat it. And they still couldn’t win.
The problem with purchasing power is believing that you have also bought people.
Billionaires depend on our silence and complicity. They forget that we buy their tickets. We fill their arenas. We build their empires. And we have the power to bring them down.
The people have spoken. We want an end to the genocide and we want a free Palestine. The arenas have made their decision. Now we’re going to make our own. If they think the threat of never playing another arena in America will make me retreat into silence, they’ve screwed me.
There will be more shows for Palestine. We will continue to work with other artists and organizers, continuing where we left off in Europe. We’ll probably just put this shit out where it was supposed to be in the first place.
Our commitment to fundraising and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people remains the same.
There comes a time when the world changes, not because those in power give us permission, but because people stop asking for it.
We build our own scenes.
They can own the arenas. But they don’t own the people who fill them. And they never will.
FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸❤️✨
Gn entert
