The Encampments | Official Trailer

Are Music Industry Firms Not Supporting Palestinians' BDS Campaign?

Most U.S. antiwar and Palestinian solidarity Movement music fans in the USA and elsewhere in 2024 are opposed to the Israeli government's continued war on people in Gaza and support the call of Palestinian solidarity Movement organizers around the globe for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign in which musicians refuse to perform in Israel and music industry firms divest themselves of their Israeli business operations.

Yet in recent years, some music industry firms apparently expanded their business operations within Israel.  As an article by Shirley Halperin that was posted on the Variety magazine website on May 25, 2022 noted:

"Warner Music Group has opened an office in Israel. The new recorded music affiliate is headed by Mariah Mochiach, a veteran of the Israeli music industry...Warner Music Israel, based in Tel Aviv, will locally market and promote artists from the WMG roster....

"Recorded music revenue in Israel saw a rise of 10.2% in 2021...and international music companies have taken notice, with Live Nation and Universal Music Group opening Tel Aviv outposts in recent years....Superstar artists are returning to the country, routing a Tel Aviv stop among tour dates in the region... At Warner, Israel will be part of the Eastern Mediterranean region covering Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Turkey.

"In her new position, Mochiach reports to Alfonso Perez-Soto, president of emerging markets, Warner Recorded Music...

“`I’m honored to be able to open Warner Music Israel for business,' said Mochiach. `Our country is full of unique and extraordinary talent which we hope to propel onto the global stage...'....”

"Added Perez-Soto: `...We hope to turn Warner Music Israel into a powerhouse full of local stars... offering artists the opportunity to tap into Warner Music’s renowned global network...'"

And as Shirley Halperin also observed in an article that was posted on the Variety magazine website on July 29, 2022:

"...In 2021, UMG opened a Tel Aviv office housing a recorded music division and an arm of Universal Music Publishing Group...

"The key factor, says Warner’s Mochiach, is that these artists `are also fluent in English, which is an advantage when it comes to doing international promotion. …'"

Despite the failure of these music industry firms to support the Palestinian solidarity Movement's call for a cultural boycott of Israel, even many commercially-motivated pop musicians had already endorsed the BDS campaign prior to the post-October 7, 2023 Israeli war machine's military actions in Gaza, which have killed over 27,000 people--including thousands of women, children and non-combatant civilian men--as of February 1, 2024. As an article that the New Arab website posted on May 29, 2021 had previously noted:

"Over 600 musicians, including Rage Against the Machine, have signed an open letter calling on other artists to boycott performances in Israel until it ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"The letter, organized under the banner "Musicians for Palestine," follows growing widespread condemnation of Israel and support for Palestine from leading public figures and celebrities...  

"`As musicians, we cannot be silent. Today it is essential that we stand with Palestine. We are calling on our peers to publicly assert their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Complicity with Israeli war crimes is found in silence, and today silence is not an option'" the letter read.

"`Today, we speak together and demand justice, dignity and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people and all who are fighting colonial dispossession and violence across the planet,' it added...

"The open letter asks fellow artists to refuse `to perform at Israel's complicit cultural institutions...and...stand...firm in...support of the Palestinian people and their human right to sovereignty and freedom'." 

March of Our People

Fedayee (Freedom Fighter)

The Road of Dignity

The Testament of a Martyr

The Rising Tide

The Revolutionaries' Pledge

Beladi (Motherland)

Palestine Lives--Bob A. Feldman

U.S. Music Industry Tried To Stop Production Of Paredon Records' `Palestine Lives!' Album

 

In the 1970's, some executives of the commercially-motivated U.S. corporate music industry apparently attempted to stop the production and distribution of the Paredon Records label's vinyl album Palestine Lives!. As [the now-deceased] former Sing-Out! magazine editor and Paredon Records co-founder Irwin Silber recalled in a 1991 interview:

"...We really came under incredible attack... The music industry, especially in New York, is very heavily...pro-Israel. So, when word got around that we were doing this record, a campaign began to try to stop it. Literally to stop it.

"And the important figures in the music industry called our various suppliers, the people who made the masters, the plates, the pressing: `Listen!  We’re going to withdraw a whole lot of business from you if you cooperate with these people in putting out this record.'

"There really was such a campaign. And I don’t remember exactly how we solved it. But I know, in a couple of cases, we had to go to some outfits other than our usual supply...

"...It really was an insight into the depth of the emotions stirred by the Palestinian question...I mean I knew it. I mean I’m Jewish and you know I know...the community. But it really got brought home. Really got brought home. And it was, in a way, a provocation to the music industry, because of its particular character.

"But I have always felt that the Palestinian issue is sort of one these cutting edge issues, which it’s sort of like crucial litmus test. Because there’s nothing to be gained by supporting the Palestinians. Career-wise or anything else. Just nothing at all...to stick your neck out and get down in the line with them in the United States."

U.S. corporate music industry tried to stop production of this album in 1970's

And in a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer and Paredon Records co-founder Barbara Dane also observed that "somebody made a deliberate campaign calling all of our suppliers and the pressing plant and everybody," in an attempt to stop production and distribution of the Paredon Records label's Palestine Lives! vinyl album.'

Paredon Records Co-Founders Irwin Silber and Barbara Dane