“We must be clear in our convictions and put solidarity with the people of Palestine first.” Irish band Fontaines D.C. explain why they won’t be playing in Türkiye later this month.
ADVERTISEMENTIrish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. have cancelled their scheduled Istanbul gig in Türkiye, in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
The band, composed of Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan III (bass) and Tom Coll (drums), are currently touring around Europe and are about to release their eagerly-awaited fourth album ‘Romance’ on 23 August.
They were scheduled to perform at the Zorlu PSM on 20 August.
The band released the following statement on their Instagram page:
“To all our wonderful fans in Turkey,” the statement began. “Further to conversations with Palestinian artists and human rights activists, we have now decided to cancel our show at Sorlu PSM, Istanbul on Tuesday 20th August. The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, led by the largest Palestinian coalition, has called on artists to refuse to play Zorlu PSM until Zorlu fully divests from the supply of energy to Israel while it carries out what the International Court of Justice now agrees is plausibly a genocide.”
It continued: “We were really looking forward to visiting and playing beautiful Istanbul, however in this instance, we must be clear in our convictions and put solidarity with the people of Palestine first. We promise to play in Turkey as soon as we can make it possible.”
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement urges people not to do business with Israel because of the country’s long history of apartheid and genocide in Palestine.
According to a post on the BDS committee’s official Instagram, Zorlu owns part of Dorad, a large power plant located in Israel.
It supplies “5-8% of apartheid Israel’s energy while it carries out genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in besieged Gaza,” it reads. “A campaign from BDS Turkey has already compelled Zorlu Energy to partially divest from the Israeli energy market. But until it fully divests from the Dorad plant, Zorlu Holdings and all its subsidiaries should be held accountable.”
Fontaines D.C.’s statement follows the mass exodus of several artists at numerous UK festivals this summer.
From The Great Escape to Download and Latitude, artists have boycotted the festivals over their sponsorship with British bank Barclays, who has been accused of trying to “art wash” its reputation by sponsoring music events while allegedly increasing its investment in arms companies that trade with Israel.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) revealed the bank's investments of over £1 billion in shares and providing over £3 billion in loans.
In response to the boycotts, Barclays have repeatedly pointed to their online Q&A which states: “We have been asked why we invest in nine defence companies supplying Israel, but this mistakes what we do. We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares. We are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to these companies.”
