A US politician has called for Lorde’s upcoming Florida tour dates to be cancelled following her controversial decision to not tour in Israel.
Back in December, it was reported that, Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab, authors of the New Zealand publication The Spinoff published an open letter in which they requested Lorde to reconsider her decision to perform a gig in Tel Aviv this June.
Titled ‘Dear Lorde, here’s why we’re urging you not to play Israel,” the publication noted that “a performance in Israel sends the wrong message. Playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the policies of the Israeli government, even if you make no comment on the political situation.”
The authors of the piece concluded their plea to Lorde by asking her to “join the artistic boycott of Israel, cancel your Israeli tour dates and make a stand. Your voice will join many others and together we can and will make a difference.”
This soon saw Lorde admit she was reconsidering the performance, before it was reported that her concert had indeed been cancelled.
Here is @Lorde‘s statement on the cancellation of her Tel Aviv show, via Israeli PR for the concert. pic.twitter.com/Ph0uGHRjCV
— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) December 24, 2017
This was met with widespread praise and criticism from many, with Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand announcing he’d like to talk to Lorde about a compromise, and a full-page ad being taken out in The Washington Post which called Lorde a “bigot” for her choices.
Now, a US politician is claiming that under state law, Lorde’s upcoming gigs should be cancelled.
As Pitchfork notes, Florida representative Randy Fine recently took to Facebook to refer to a 2016 law which makes it clear that no “state or local government can conduct business exceeding $1 million with any organization engaged in a boycott of Israel.”
“Florida has no tolerance for anti-Semitism and boycotts intended to destroy the State of Israel,” said Fine. “That’s why Florida passed groundbreaking anti-BDS legislation several years ago and why, along with Senator Jeff Brandes, I have proposed strengthening that legislation this year.”
“Current statutes are clear – local governments cannot do business with companies that participate in anti-Semitic boycotts of Israel. When Lorde joined the boycott in December, she and her companies became subject to that statute,” he continued. “The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and anti-Semitism, and I look forward to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority complying with the law and cancelling these concerts.”
For those who aren’t here to take a reading test, the basic gist is that Fine believes that when Lorde cancelled her Tel Aviv concert, she committed an anti-semitic act, and therefore should have her April concerts cancelled so that the state of Florida doesn’t break the law by doing business with her.
Of course, whether or not an action such as this is actually anti-semitic would certainly be up for debate, and actually seems to echo a recent supposed lawsuit against the two New Zealanders who brought the matter to Lorde’s attention, by prospective Israeli concertgoers.
In their lawsuit (which has seen been refuted), it is claimed that by bringing the issue to Lorde’s attention, they broke the law, in accordance with some recent anti-Israeli boycott laws.
Needless to say, this whole saga is a mess, and we certainly hope we see an end to it sooner rather than later.
Check out Lorde’s ‘Green Light’:
