AJC is appalled by a Spanish music festival’s decision to ban an American Jewish singer because he refused to publicly state his position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “He is a musician who has been denied the opportunity to play his planned gig at a European reggae festival purely because he is Jewish and because he refuses to side with the vicious and bigoted BDS movement”.

The U.S. Anti-Defamation League Monday called Matisyahu’s exclusion “a clear case of anti-Semitic discrimination”. However, the festival officially supports the BDS movement against Israel, while Matisyahu has been outspoken in his defence of the country, voicing a desire to live there someday, Newsweek has reported.

The organizers of a week-long music festival committed to building “spaces of hope” and laying “paths of culture and freedom” have booted Jewish American rapper Matisyahu from the line-up.

According to Billboard, the Spanish foreign ministry issued a statement on 18 August, which said: “Imposing a public declaration [from Matisyahu] puts into question the principles of non-discrimination on which all plural and diverse societies are based”.

Let’s be honest: While such boycotts are disconcerting they are not new, and they have nothing to do with Israel’s moral justification in protecting its citizens.

But after facing more BDS pressure, the organizers buckled and on Saturday said they were dropping him because he was unwilling to “clearly speak out against the [2014 Gaza] war and the right of Palestinians to have their own state”.

The Spanish Federation of Jewish Communities condemned the decision as cowardly, unjust and discriminatory, saying that Matisyahu had been asked to take a political position because he was Jewish when this was not required of other performers.

“We did not say NO to Matisyahu because he has Hebrew roots or as a Zionist, but we just simply considered inappropriate organising something that would certainly generate a conflict, without any possibility of dialogue”, they wrote.

“This is a clear instance of anti-Semitism, and nothing else”, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in a statement to Israel’s Arutz Sheva.

“I support peace and compassion for all people”, he wrote.

The facts of the Matisyahu incident are interesting because, as a religious Jew, his public image is so closely tied to Judaism.