The Deafening Silence Of Rockstars On Palestine

Summer music festival season is approaching (assuming the diesel is available to run the generators), and one of the artists who’ll be gracing stages across Europe and the US is Jack White.

Best known as the lead singer of The White Stripes, White is a vocal anti-Trump voice in the music industry, and also extremely pro-Ukraine. White speaks and posts regularly about Ukraine, often condemning Russia and Putin, who he calls evil.

On Gaza, on Palestine, on Netanyahu and on genocide however, he has had absolutely nothing to say, going so far as to methodically delete any references in support of Palestine posted in the replies on his social media.

I’ve picked on Jack White, but I could have chosen hundreds of other names to demonstrate the hypocrisy and double standards of so many western musicians.

Lots of artists who have spoken out against Russia, adorned their stages with Ukraine flags and performed at a 2022 benefit concert for Ukraine, like Ed Sheeran, have been silent on Palestine and on Israeli apartheid and genocide.

Lots of artists have attached themselves to the empire-approved narrative of Ukraine good/Russia bad, a feel-good position that comes with absolutely zero financial or reputational costs, but have refused to stand against Israel and its genocide of Gaza because it comes with costs. To speak up against Israel is to defy US empire and western imperialism. And in an industry filled with Zionists, standing against genocide comes with material costs, as artists like Bob Vylan and Kneecap, targeted for imprisonment by the British state, have found out.

The silence, especially from those artists who sing about war, fascism and resistance, has been telling. Shamefully telling.

Artists like Muse, who titled an album Drones, whose lyrics excoriate the militarised surveillance state, and in the song Psycho parodied the toxic culture of murderous obedience that enables the crimes of US empire.

Psycho lyrics

Muse, who titled another album Resistance and in the song Uprising sung that we must “let the revolution must take its toll” that “we should never be afraid to die” and that we must “rise up and take the power back, time the fat cats had a heart attack.”

Despite this performative resistance and revolutionary aesthetic, the lead singer of Muse, Matt Bellamy, has said nothing about Palestine. He has played the role of the compliant empire grunt he satirises and performed with a Ukraine flag on his guitar. But he’s said nothing about the drones and the fucking psychos committing genocide in Gaza. Like Jack White, Bellamy didn’t perform at the Together For Palestine event and hasn’t signed up to the No Music For Genocide campaign which has seen musicians remove their songs from streaming platforms in Israel.

Very few of the artists who have signed up to the campaign are really mainstream, arena-sized bands. Notable exceptions include Paramore lead singer Haley Williams, Paul Weller, Massive Attack, Idles, Wolf Alice and Fontaines DC. But for the most part, those bands who are famous and popular enough not to fear the consequences of speaking up have demonstrated a shameful and cowardly silence. Less famous artists who don’t have the influence of Jack White or Matt Bellamy and who do have something to lose are the ones who’ve stepped up and showed the bare minimum of solidarity a genocided people should expect from artists who profess to channel the human spirit.

Too many big name artists are cowards who will gladly milk the adoration of their fans for safe political stances, but appear to believe that standing with a genocided people is a statement of radicalism rather than an expression of basic humanity. Or maybe they’re just Zionists and racists who approve of apartheid and genocide. Bruce Springsteen, with whom Trump got into a slanging match after Springsteen called Trump a moron, deserves special mention here. A performer who for decades has traded on his progressive, blue-collar credentials and standing up for the little guy, but has been silent on genocide.

Then there are the artists who’ve performed in Israel. And this is too-long a long list, a list of the great and good of the pop and rock world, from Madonna to Bono, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi, to Mick Jagger and Radiohead. In reality this is a list of frauds and certain racists and Zionists.

Does any of this matter?

I think it does. As do many Palestinians who lead boycott campaigns to stop artists playing in Israel, and who urge musicians to speak out on Palestine.

It matters because musicians, and the cultural soft power they wield, are vital to sustaining Israel’s apartheid and genocide project.

Legitimisation through live performances by big-name bands and singers is absolutely essential to Israel’s project of normalisation. The melodies and lyrics of the world’s biggest musicians help wash the crimes of apartheid and genocide. When these artists are pictured with Netanyahu, as Madonna has been, or out and about in Tel Aviv, as has been the case for many of the big names who’ve performed there, the message is clear: Israel is just a normal country and my appearance here is proof.

Look at how important a campy, joke song contest like Eurovision is to Israel. So important that the New York Times reported last week that for years the government has run campaigns dedicated to juicing and rigging the vote. The Times further reported that Israeli embassies in the west summoned domestic broadcast bosses to demand they broadcast this year’s event.

Music is important to Israel because it grants it a social and cultural cachet which becomes a license to commit apartheid and genocide.

And while those artists who have stood up for Palestinians and against Israel are a breath of fresh air, and deserve to be supported over the cowardly and complicit big-name artists, the story is not their stance.

The story is Israeli apartheid and the genocide of the Palestinians.

A genocide that continues every day.

Earlier this week Israel bombed a community kitchen, killing volunteers trying to feed their community amidst the tents, rubble and dust of their former homes.

The picture of a spilled pot of food mixed with blood was another disgraceful image among the thousands that have marked this genocide.

But no media outlets ran it.

Jack White didn’t post about it.

Of course there’s a lot of blame to go around in this system, but musicians with big platforms exert important cultural influence.

Every one of them who has failed to speak up over genocide has failed not just morally, but artistically, and is complicit in the erasure of the Palestinians.

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