Following apology from Spanish festival, Matisyahu confirms he will perform

Jewish groups urged Spanish officials to intervene and on Wednesday (19Aug15), Matisyahu was invited back. The festival’ decision speaked condemnation from the Spanish government and Jewish groups.

Last week, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain condemned what it called the festival’s “cowardly and discriminatory decision” to cancel the concert and its organizers’ “capitulation to the extortion and humiliation by the BDS movement”.

The festival said it had cancelled Matisyahu’s performance under pressure from the BDS movement, citing a “campaign of pressure, coercion and threats” against it that stoked fears the festival would be disrupted and “prevented the organization from reasoning clearly”.

Matisyahu to perform on Saturday August 22nd at the Rototom Sunsplash reggae music festival in Spain following days of negotiations with organizers who had dropped him as part of an effort to boycott Israel.

Some in the audience expressed disapproval when the artist took the stage, including chanting “out, out”, but many others among the thousands of peopleapplauded the singer. “Let music be your flag”, he added, after dancing his way through his 45-minute set.

Matisyahu, who fuses reggae, hip-hop and rock with Jewish influences in his songs, was uninvited from the Rototom Sunsplash festival last week when he failed to reply to a demand to clarify his position on Palestinian statehood.

The organisers said they had made a mistake under pressure from activists who call for a boycott and sanctions on Israel over its policies towards Palestinians. “Every chance to make music is a blessing”.

“Demanding a public declaration only from him is a way of acting that violates his conscience and, if it was decided based on Matisyahu’s Jewish identity, puts into question the principle of non-discrimination”, it said in a statement.

After the event, Matisyahu tweeted, “Tonight was not easy but at the end of it all I feel blessed to be given the opportunity”. Following criticism at home and overseas, festival organizers later reversed their decision and apologized.