After the 2014 Gaza war, O’Connor heeded the campaign’s calls to pull out of a concert near Tel Aviv.īut the cancellation of her 1997 Jerusalem concert was remembered the most in Israel - a country in turmoil as Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir press ahead with their divisive, far-right agenda. She became a supporter of the Palestinian-led campaign that calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities. O’Connor’s relationship to Israel only become more fraught following the botched concert. He has pushed for the creation of a national guard that critics fear could endanger Israel’s Palestinian minority, toughened measures against Palestinian prisoners and ramped up home demolitions in the contested capital. Until recently, he hung a portrait in his home of an Israeli gunman who killed 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994.Īs national security minister, Ben-Gvir has repeatedly sparked backlash over his anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts. Rabbi Meir Kahane’s violent anti-Arab ideology was considered so repugnant in the 1980s that Israel banned him from parliament and the United States listed his party as a terrorist group.īen-Gvir, now 47, was convicted in his youth of inciting racism against Arabs and barred from serving in the Israeli army because he was considered too extremist. After her cancellation, fans and fellow peace activists expressed anger, surprise and dismay - some sealing their lips with black tape and protesting in the streets against Ben-Gvir and his allies.īack in 1997, Ben-Gvir was an activist in the Ideological Front, an offshoot of the racist Kahanist movement. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as their capital.Īhead of her summer concert, British and Irish embassies in Tel Aviv reported receiving death threats against O’Connor. So they boycotted the vote, and the measure passed 64-0. Peace in the Holy Land was as controversial then as it is now, and hard-liners like Ben-Gvir oppose any division of Jerusalem. Outnumbered in Parliament, Israel’s opposition parties were powerless to vote down the judicial legislation on their own. Named “Sharing Jerusalem: Two Capitals for Two States,” the event was set to take place just a few years after the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the foundation for the Mideast peace process. On June 16, 1997, O’Connor - worried for her safety and her children - backed out of the concert organized by Israeli and Palestinian women’s groups that had sought to promote Jerusalem as a capital for both people. “So you have succeeded in nothing but your soul’s failure.” “God does not reward those who bring terror to children of the world,” O’Connor wrote in a message addressing Ben-Gvir. News Benjamin Netanyahu How Netanyahu plans to bring down Israel’s new government Analysts say ex-Israeli PM, removed in June after a 12-year tenure, is using a raft of tactics to undermine. Incensed after hearing Ben-Gvir, who was then 21, boast in a radio interview that he had succeeded in scaring her away from Jerusalem, she sent the letter to The Associated Press and other news organizations. While most people remember the star for her hit cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U” or the uproar that followed her ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV, many Israelis on Thursday recounted an open letter she wrote castigating Ben-Gvir. O’Connor, a spirited singer and frequent source of controversy who rocketed to fame in 1990, died on Wednesday in London. for Cable News Network, but it could have stood for Creating News Now. The transformation of Ben-Gvir from a fringe Israeli extremist trying to take down O’Connor’s coexistence-themed concert to a powerful minster overseeing the Israeli police force reflects the dramatic rise of Israel’s far-right. To add emphasis, he fired missiles at Israel, which had nothing to do with the. Today, he is Israel’s national security minister. At the time, a young man named Itamar Ben-Gvir took credit for the campaign against her. If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.JERUSALEM (AP) - Death threats forced Irish pop singer Sinead O’Connor to call off a peace concert in Jerusalem in the summer of 1997. (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) 3 dead, 4 injured in ax murder terror attack in Elad, Israel - Israel News - The Jerusalem Post
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