The Embassy of Israel in Portugal has criticised Kanye West’s concert, scheduled for this Friday in the Algarve, and has called for the show to be cancelled, citing the artist’s public statements, deemed antisemitic and supportive of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
“Someone who glorified Hitler, promoted antisemitism and claimed that slavery was a choice, a remark that deeply offended millions of descendants of slavery’s victims. This is not provocation, it is hate speech,” says ambassador Oren Rozenblat in a video posted on social media.
In a statement, the ambassador recalled comments by the musician in which he said he “liked Hitler” and that he was “a Nazi”, accusing him of glorifying the Nazi regime, promoting antisemitism and offending communities affected by racism and slavery. The embassy argues that these statements go beyond mere provocation and constitute hate speech.
Rozenblat points out that other countries have already taken measures against the artist performing or entering their territories, arguing that “a democratic society should not give a platform to someone who glorifies Hitler, promotes Nazism and defends antisemitism”.
The Embassy of Israel in Portugal also says it has asked the mayor of Faro for the cancellation of the concert and urges citizens not to attend, arguing that going ahead with the show would be “a disgrace for Portugal and for the Portuguese”.
The Israeli ambassador in Portugal stresses that the issue is not about people’s positions on Israel, but about what he considers to be statements of hatred against Jews.
He also questions whether the Portuguese would buy tickets for an artist who encouraged attacks against other communities, such as Black people, Muslims, Christians or LGBT people, insisting that the same principle should apply to antisemitism.
“A non-issue”
Torcato Jorge, CEO and co-founder of Raya Culture, the event organiser, said earlier, in an interview with Euronews, that cancelling Kanye West’s concert is “a non-issue”, driven by “disinformation”.
“It is a music event that is going ahead. It would become an issue if the security services identified a national threat to public order, which is not the case,” he reiterates.
The organiser expressed confidence that all the conditions are in place for the concert to go ahead and says that the organisation has complied with the law from day one. “The SIS has not identified the artist, or in this case the US citizen, as a national threat or a terrorist,” he notes. “There has to be an internal state security report saying that this citizen cannot enter the country,” he adds.
Speaking to Euronews, the CEO acknowledges that the issue is becoming “a political matter”. “Each country is free to decide whether or not to allow a citizen to enter, but within the European Union no country has vetoed his entry into its national territory.”
Controversial statements and cancelled concerts
In recent years, Kanye West has been at the centre of various international controversies, mainly because of comments considered antisemitic and because of contentious behaviour, including episodes linked to sexist attitudes, such as the case involving his wife, Bianca Censori, at the Grammys.
Although he has apologised for some of his comments, the European tour of the rapper, who also goes by the stage name Ye, has run into difficulties, with concerts cancelled in several countries.
In the United Kingdom, three performances at the Wireless festival, scheduled for July, were cancelled after the country revoked the rapper’s permission to enter. In France, the artist himself postponed a concert scheduled for Marseille after criticism from local authorities.
Poland also cancelled a show planned for June, citing legal and formal reasons, after the minister of culture criticised the rapper’s antisemitic statements. In Switzerland, FC Basel decided not to go ahead with a concert planned for its stadium, stating that it did not want to give the artist a platform.
In Italy, Kanye West also had a concert cancelled. The show, scheduled for July in Reggio Emilia, was banned by the local authorities because of concerns about security and public order, in particular the potential for protests and unrest. Rapper Travis Scott also had a concert cancelled in the same Italian city.