The Brooklyn-based indie rock band Big Thief had recently made plans to perform in their bassist’s hometown of Tel Aviv, Israel. In their announcement last Friday, they released a statement justifying their decision to perform in the country in the midst of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Now, the rock band has decided to cancel their performance in the country, due to backlash they had received from their initial statement.

To announce the decision to cancel the show, the band decided to put out another statement clarifying and apologizing for their previous statements and plans. Spin quotes the artists beginning the post “by clarifying a few things from our first post. When we spoke of loving ‘beyond disagreement’ and not knowing ‘where the moral high ground lies,’ that was in specific referred to playing shows in Israel during a time where BDS (The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel) is calling for a cultural boycott.” They clarify that the statement “was not in reference to the Israeli occupation and the displacement of Palestinians.”

They go on to make clear that “we oppose the illegal occupation and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. We believe in total freedom and self-determination for all Palestinians,” going on to state explicitly that they “oppose the illegal occupation and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Big Thief explains that their intention to visit the city related to it being their bassist’s hometown, that was backed up by “a simple belief that music can heal. We now recognize that the shows we had booked do not honor that sentiment.” See the band’s post via Instagram below.

 

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the venue that Big Thief intended to play in, Barby, was outraged at the decision to cancel their show, saying via a Facebook statement that the band’s “cancellation you just made me sad for you bunch of miserable spineless musicians who are afraid of their own shadow,” it read. The band had previously played at the venue in 2017 and were supposed to play in 2020 prior to the pandemic.”

Big Thief have been on tour to promote their recently released album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You.