This week, event producers announced that Sam Smith's performance at the two-day Summer in the City Festival at Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv has been canceled “due to unforeseeable technical and logistical problems.”
This would have been the “Unholy” singer’s first concert in Israel. It was originally intended to be a 90-minute performance of their new album, Gloria.
Even though the event was sold out, the Grammy-winning singer was already being pressured by supporters and activists to cancel this concert in Israel due to the region's current political state.
In a letter to Smith, Ghadir Shafie, the co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms said that “despite intentions,” performing in Israel “helps prop up the false image of Israel as a modern, democratic society. It may sound benign, but it is what allows Israel to continue its wholesale theft of Palestinian life, land, and dignity.”
Before the cancellation, the hashtag #SamDontGo gained supporters on Twitter with people signing a petition and calling on Smith to cancel the performance.
Twitter user @RafaelShimunov wrote, “As a Sam Smith fan, I'm joining Palestinians, fellow Jews, LGBTQ+ and all human rights defenders in asking@samsmith to choose the right side of history and not pinkwash Israeli apartheid by performing in Tel Aviv. #SamDontGo.”
LGBTQ+ protesters also held up signs outside the singer’s London concert venue asking Smith to cancel their Tel Aviv performance.
Smith was praised after the cancelation, with some even claiming that the pressure by activists is the real reason it happened.
Despite all of this, the second day of the festival will continue as planned with Robbie Williams, Calum Scott, Martin Garrix, and Israeli singer Static, who are all set to perform on June 1.
