Israeli court fines activists over cancelled Lorde concert

In December of last year, New Zealand singer Lorde was promptly met with backlash and requests to reconsider her position after she signalled her intention to perform in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Leading the public condemnation was the Boycott, Dives and Sanction (BDS) movement. And most notably, Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs published an open letter to the singer via The Spinoff, a website in New Zealand.

In the letter, the two pleaded with Lorde to “join the artistic boycott of Israel”, stating that "millions of people stand opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, occupation and apartheid. As part of this struggle, we believe that an economic, intellectual and artistic boycott is an effective way of speaking out against these crimes. This worked very effectively against apartheid in South Africa, and we hope it can work again."

Lorde, who broke through with the global mega-hit 'Royals', was successfully persuaded and subsequently cancelled her concert. In response, a suit was filed against Abu-Shanab and Sachs by three Israeli minors, who claimed "emotional distress" had been caused as a result of the cancellation. They were able to file the bizarre lawsuit due to a rarely-implemented law introduced into legislation in 2011 that permits civil lawsuits against individuals who advocate boycotting Israel.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner – lawyer for the plaintiffs - reportedly claimed that "no one can boycott Israel without paying for it." That appears to have been confirmed to be the case as the two activists have been ordered to pay in excess of $12,000 in damages for their actions.

Darshan-Leitner also said that she will ensure the ruling is enforced by chasing down the pair's bank accounts with the aid of "international treaties".  However the defendants today responded to the ruling by taking to the fundraising website givealittle, asserting that they "will not be paying the court ordered amount." They instead intend to raise the equivalent amount that they have been ordered to pay (or more) and then donate to that money to The Gaza Mental Health Foundation, who provide financial support for the varying programmes that give "vital mental health support to the traumatised families of the Gaza Strip," say the pair. "Emotional distress is a lived reality for Palestinians in Gaza, where over half of children suffer PTSD as a result of Israeli military attacks."

The Lorde case is the latest in an emerging pattern of artists being advised not to perform in Israel. Lana Del Rey recently postponed a planned performance in the country. However, Radiohead ignored pleas to cancel their July concert in Tel Aviv.