British trip-hop group Massive Attack announced Thursday they were joining an initiative to block their music in Israel and have also asked for their songs to be removed from Spotify.
The Bristol natives said they had joined “No Music for Genocide,” a collective of musicians modeled on the “Film Workers for Palestine” group, which has also called for a cultural boycott of Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“We’d appeal to all musicians to transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable and vital action to end the unspeakable hell being visited upon the Palestinians hour after hour,” the group wrote on Instagram on Thursday.
A website for “No Music for Genocide” says it brings together more than 400 artists and labels that “have geo-blocked and removed their music” from Israel in protest at the country’s Gaza campaign.
The initiative is just one instance in a growing global backlash against Israel within the cultural and sports arenas over the war in Gaza.
It offers advice to artists about how to geo-block their songs so they are unavailable on streaming platforms in Israel.
Other musicians to sign on to the initiative include rock bank Primal Scream and anti-Israel rappers Kneecap, one of whose members faces a British terror charge for allegedly supporting Hezbollah. However, as of Friday, their music was still available to play in Israel.
Massive Attack also said they had asked their label to remove all their songs from Spotify over investments in a European defense start-up by the CEO and co-founder of the Swedish streaming platform, Daniel Ek.
Ek runs a private equity company that led a consortium of investors which injected 600 million euros ($700 million) in European military artificial intelligence and drone maker Helsing in June.
Ek is also chairman of Helsing, which says on its website that its mission is “to protect our democratic values and open societies.”
Massive Attack said that “the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavors of musicians funds lethal, dystopian technologies.”
AFP has approached Spotify for comment, but a spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper that Spotify and Helsing were “totally separate companies” and Helsing was “not involved in Gaza.”
A statement from Helsing said its technology was not being used outside of Europe.
“Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defense against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only,” it said.
Like many other campaigners, Massive Attack cited the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa as inspiration for their actions against Israel.
“Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable,” the group said.
They also took part in a major concert in London on Wednesday evening called “Together for Palestine” that featured top British artists including indie band Bastille, Brian Eno and DJ Jamie xx.
The line-up also included actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Florence Pugh, and documentary maker Louis Theroux.
The war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages taken to the Strip.
More than 65,000 people Gaza have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel has strenuously contested accusations that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that it makes efforts to deliver aid to Gaza’s civilians. It has accused the United Nations of delays in distributing aid and charged Hamas with stealing the supplies.