Spain: BDS seen in the Spanish press as a violent organization' after Matisyahu uproar

Matisyahu Sings Jerusalem At Sunsplash Festival

The Jerusalem Post reports:

“Three thousand years with no place to be, and they want me to give up my milk and honey,” Jewish-American reggae singer Matisyahu sang of Israel early Sunday morning at a Spanish Reggae festival that first wanted to boycott him.

The concert took place after Matisyahu accepted an apology from the organizers and they re-invited him to perform at the week-long Rototom Sunsplash reggae festival after initially caving into pressure from Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists to drop him.

Some of those pro-Palestinian activists, the Spanish paper El Pais put the number at about 100, greeted him with catcalls when he appeared on stage, but as he began to perform the boos “gave way to applause and cheers” by others in the packed crowd at the festival at Benicassim, near Valencia in eastern Spain.

In an apparent statement to those who tried to get him blacklisted because he would not issue a statement of support for Palestinian statehood, Matisyahu sang his 2006 reggae-fusion song, “Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem, if I forget you, Let my right hand forget what it's supposed to do,” he sang paraphrasing the Book of Psalms, in an up-tempo song about the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

“In the ancient days, we will return with no delay/ Picking up the bounty and the spoils on our way/ We've been traveling from state to state/And them don't understand what they say,” he sang.

In an allusion to the Holocaust, he continued, “Rebuild the temple and the crown of glory/ Years gone by, about sixty/ Burn in the oven in this century/ And the gas tried to choke but it couldn't choke me.” Read more.