Florida rep looks to cancel Lorde concert over BDS
Lorde canceled her show scheduled for June in Tel Aviv after pressure from anti-Israel activists.
By AMY SPIROUpdated: FEBRUARY 16, 2018 02:54Lorde appears in Inglewood, California, earlier this year, before her decision to cancel her show in Israel(photo credit: MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS)
A Florida state representative has called for the cancellation of two concerts by New Zealand singer Lorde due to her canceled show in Tel Aviv.In a letter sent last week, Florida State Rep. Randy Fine called on state authorities to cancel the shows “in order to comply with Florida law.”Fine said that Lorde canceled her Tel Aviv show “in order to join the anti-Israeli BDS movement,” and added, “The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and antisemitism.”Fine sent his letter to the Tampa Sports Authority and the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority demanding they cancel the shows slated for April 11 and 12, respectively. A representative for Fine told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that he had not yet received any response to his letters.“We are optimistic that both governments will follow the law and boycott the boycotter,” Fine told the Post on Thursday. “We will continue to work with state and local government as well as citizens around the state unwilling to subsidize hate and terror until the law is adhered to.”In December, Lorde canceled her show scheduled for June in Tel Aviv after being pressured by anti-Israel activists. At the time, the singer said she “had a lot of discussions with people holding many views, and I think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show.”Florida passed a statute in 2016 that bans the state from doing more than $1 million of business with any company that participates in the BDS movement. In November, Fine introduced a bill that would waive the million-dollar threshold. The statute has advanced in the Florida State House of Representatives but has not yet passed.Similar, unsuccessful efforts were made in New York to cancel the shows of musician Roger Waters. Unlike Lorde, Waters regularly and publicly calls for all artists to boycott the State of Israel. Yet his shows around the US went ahead without incident. A representative for Lorde did not respond to a request for comment.
