The R'n'B diva is moving ahead with her Tel Aviv concert despite being urged to cancel by 'The Color Purple' author Alice Walker.
- Jun 3, 2013
AceShowbiz - Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys is set to perform at Tel Aviv's Nokia Theatre in Israel on the Fourth of July, her very first time to hold a show in the Middle Eastern country. But her excitement over the upcoming concert has been met with appeals from anti-Israel boycott advocates calling on the 32-year-old entertainer to cancel the said show.
Most recent celebrity to urge Keys to reconsider her plans is "The Color Purple" author Alice Walker, an advocate of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. In an open letter to Keys, Walker warned the global superstar against performing in what the author called "an apartheid country," and putting herself in danger, specifically "soul danger." Walker then went on to give Keys somewhat of a lecture in her note, regarding the ongoing issues between Israel and Palestine.
Keys has quickly replied to Walker's personal plea in the negative, saying, "I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show."
Prior to Walker's appeal, Keys also received a letter from British musician and Pink Floyd's founding member Roger Waters asking her to "join the rising tide of resistance" and refuse "to give legitimacy to the Israeli government policies of illegal, apartheid, occupation of the homelands of the indigenous people of Palestine."
