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114

Boy George pulled from West End performance run after releasing pro-Israel song (www.thenational.scot)

submitted 1 week ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Boy George has been pulled off a West End performance days before he was set to take the stage as his manager scrambles to minimise backlash to a pro-Israel song.

Earlier this week the former Culture Club frontman released "We Will Dance Again", which featured the opening line "you say genocide, I said war, when you're attacked, that's what the army is for".

He goes on to describe Israel's assault as having got "ugly", before saying that it has done so because he "knows you want to kill every last one of us," referring to Jewish people living in Israel.

The release led to fierce backlash against the English singer. His manager, Paul Kemsley, has now released statement saying he has made the decision to pull Boy George from a scheduled run in Andrew Llyod Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar.

He was set to play King Herod – a one-song cameo role that’s being rotated – from August 3 to 15.

all 36 comments

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[–] Babalugats@feddit.uk 1 points 6 days ago

“you say genocide, I said war, when you’re attacked, that’s what the army is for”.

To quote one of his earlier songs..

"war is stupid and people are stupid.. This world of hate must be designed for you It matters what you say, it matters what you do

So the idiot has gone from war being stupid to saying it is needed. He is still proving that people are stupid though.

[–] tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 56 points 1 week ago

"Pro-Israel" is a generous descriptor.

Genocide denying, racist, ai-slop is what it is.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He goes on to describe Israel's assault as having got "ugly", before saying that it has done so because he "knows you want to kill every last one of us," referring to Jewish people living in Israel.

Says the English / Irish Catholic Buddhist living in London?... What?

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

probably refers to western population as "us".

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 6 days ago

He means gays

[–] DonkeyStar@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Boy George was convicted of imprisoning an escort and beating him with a chain, so he probably feels a bit of kinship with the invaders.

[–] ODuffer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Actions... consequences

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago

Read the legal issues here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_George

Israel is in such deep shit that this is the only level of celebrity that they can bribe to promote them lol.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Obviously George has lost his goddamn mind on drugs again, but isn’t having an apologist for the slaughter of children actually pretty incredible casting for Herod?

[–] JAPHacake@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

What a nob

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

The answer to your song, Boy George, is yes.

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I hated that camacamacameleon song the first f***g time I heard it. Him and his silly hats.

[+] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org -22 points 1 week ago (7 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago

You should educate yourself more on the subject

[–] cman6@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

I think if you read up on how Israel have treated Palestinian's over the past few decades you will see that one side is clearly abusing their position of power, and treating Palestinians as second rate citizens.

I don't even know where to begin but how about Israeli snipers shooting unarmed civilians, including children: https://factually.co/fact-checks/justice/israeli-snipers-shooting-children-f4a566

Plus there is an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes

[–] radiouser@crazypeople.online 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Forgive my ignorance but when you say you kind of understand Israel what exactly do you mean?

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org -4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

What did USA do when 9/11 happened. NATO even helped. I understand them fighting Hamas.

[–] radiouser@crazypeople.online 10 points 1 week ago

Equating this to 9/11 skips over decades of occupation and the reality on the ground today.

Major human rights groups have stated that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute acts of genocide and extermination. Understanding the shock of an attack is one thing, but using 9/11 to excuse the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians doesn't hold up IMO.

[–] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Bombing kids isn't fighting hamas

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org -1 points 6 days ago

Hamas is basically hiding behind them. I strongly reject the idea that israel specifically targets them. Since no other force stepped in to eradicate hamas with the precision of a surgeon the brute force is what we get. Also i'd like to highlight that even western countries collected donations (e.g. UN) for palestine which ultimately landed in hamas hands. So israel's trust in the international community might be tainted.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Americans lost their damn mind, and what they experienced was colonial blowback from their own foreign policies. So in many ways the comparison might be more apt than intended. But the situation with Isreal is much much worse.

[–] tortina_original@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seriously, choke on a dick.

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Except

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas

"The Israeli government has been involved in assisting or empowering the Palestinian political and military organization Hamas at various points in its history.[a] This support continued during and in spite of active military hostilities between the two sides."

This is quite often how it goes. You feed and infiltrate a radical organization and then you press the "release" button when you need a "casus belli".

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hamas was also financed by Israel in order to sink the efforts of the PLO. The secular PLO looked like it might actually get some peaceful recognition of statehood and Israel knew a violent Islamist leadership would torpedo that. Israel has been fighting against Palestinian statehood, limiting movement of Palestinians, controlling resources, supporting "settler" bandits that colonize and kill Palestinians, etc.

Israel has been slowly taking over Palestinian land and killing their people for decades. The Palestinians can't vote in Israeli elections. Their statehood has been blocked by Israel so they have limited diplomatic solutions. What peaceful option do you propose they should have done?

The Oct 7 attacks killed about 1200 Israeli civilians and soldiers. In response, Israel has killed 1200 Hamas militants and 82,000 civilians, wounded a further 174,000, blocked humanitarian aid, leveled apartments, hospitals, schools, etc. Acting like both sides are bad when one is fighting for survival, and the other is committing a genocide is just arguing in support of genocide. If you're somehow still ignorant on this topic, I suggest you do some more digging into the history of Israel and Palestine. If you have learned about it and still support Israel then go fuck yourself.

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org -4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

peaceful option

Acknoledge the right of israel instead of sending rockets. Stop voting religious fanatics in.

fighting for survival

1951: 0.9m population 2026: 5.6m population

This amount of population is unsustainable on the land. They could only boom like this due to foreign aid. They have barely any economy themselves.

82k civillians

It's a guerilla war with undeclared combatants. Wiki acknoledges abt 80k without declaring them civillian. Anyhow 1200 hamas millitants is obviously bs. Also hamas using that war style only works with the help of civillians. They are complicit to some extend.

go fuck yourself

You know why everyone is fighting for this little pile of dirt? Religion. They all think their religion started there and want to claim the mountain theirs. There's alot of money in the pot to make you think their side is correct and you actually being so zealot about it to insult people so randomly shows.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Kind of saying the quiet part out loud there about the population growth. It’s about extermination of an indigenous people by colonists - same old story.

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 6 days ago

This goes for both sides ultimately. They hate each other. However saying this is a genocide and palestineans are fighting for survival is stretched far looking at these numbers.

[–] Semjeza@fedinsfw.app 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think the floatilla activists take more umbrage with the deliberate killing of Palestinian children, doctors, reporters, and anyone who might be intelligensia. Plus the starvation and massive overwhelming firepower - it's not that they forget, it's that Hamas being Iran backed and talking about making Jews extinct isn't as pressing an issue as Israel actually making Palestinians extinct.

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Maybe im ignorant but the "river to the sea" chanters seem not to care about honorable matters. I simply connected these. Going into whataboutism i don't hear strong voices from that kind of people about afghanistan or sudan.

I think it feels fake or overrepresented in the public. Maybe some of these activists are sponsored to bring the matter into the public and parroting the propaganda. This could be even indirectly without their knowledge.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And Bibi proclaimed from the river to the sea, or is it ok when he says it?

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

No it is not. Isnt he wanted by the icc?

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

With no enforcement it's useless. Most European nations still welcome him like he's not the monster that he is. They pretend he never says these things.

[–] Semjeza@fedinsfw.app 3 points 1 week ago

Most people don't pay a huge amount of attention to things that aren't in the top few news items.

Sadly, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Myanmar, and even Afghanistan and Syria and others are not. So most people do know or think much on them.

That said, the leftist folks I know who were "River to the Sea"ing back in 2016 are also the people who talk about those other countries.
They tend not to have social media channels, let alone newspapers or 24 hour news channels though.