R&B, soul and hip hop singer-songwriter Lauren Hill may cancel her planned show in Israel, scheduled for May 7 at Rishon Letzion.
Producers of the show in Israel told Walla! News that they have received messages in recent days signalling that Hill wants to cancel the performance, and that they are making “massive efforts” to avert this.
Hill is under pressure from the anti-Israel “BDS” movement that compares Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.
“The presence of artists is routinely used by Israel to legitimize its policies and maintain its reputation as a normal member of the international community,” the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation said in an action alert urging people to press Hill to boycott Israel.
Members of the anti-Israel movement prepared a version of the song “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” a 1971 song to which Hill recorded a successful cover version.
Hill performed in Israel in 2007.
British pop sensation Robbie Williams performed exuberantly before tens of thousands of Israeli fans Saturday night at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, ignoring fellow British musician, Roger Waters, who noted William's role as UNICEF's UK ambassador and ardent support of its Children in Danger campaign, and asserted the pop star was turning his back on Gazan children killed during last summer's Operation Protective Edge.
"Dear Robbie, playing this concert on May 2 would be giving your tacit support to the deaths of over 500 Palestinian children last summer in Gaza," Waters wrote.
The 41-year-old musician, however, did not bow down to the pressure, instead expressing his excitement to the crowd at visiting Israel and playing its biggest arena. Calling both the crowd and his time in Israel "amazing," Williams stressed his desire to return to the Jewish state.
"I was really really looking forward to coming here more than anywhere else I've played on this tour. I wanted to see you, I wanted to feel you, I wanted to know more about you, and I think I've done that and I want to come back again and stay a bit more time."
"It's all love folks, it's all love. You feel me?" Williams shouted to an overjoyed crowd.