Regina Spektor‘s has told pro-Palestine protestors to leave her gig after she was interrupted mid-show.
The ‘Fidelity’ singer recently stopped by Portland’s Revolution Hall (July 26), where the show came to an unexpected halt after protestors shouted “free Palestine” from the crowd. Amidst mass starvation and a humanitarian crisis in Palestine caused by Israel’s blockade of aid, a UN conference opened on Monday (July 28) pushing for a two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In fan-filmed footage, Spektor, who is of Russian-Jewish heritage, told the protestor: “You’re just yelling at a Jew. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. I really appreciate the security. We had a really hard time last night, when I said, ‘Shalom aleichem.’” The phrase translates to “peace be upon you” in Hebrew.
Spektor has been a longtime supporter of Zionism, and has previously spoken out against figures like Björk for allegedly spreading “false” information on a pro-Palestine social media post.
Upon hearing that the protestors were leaving the venue, Spektor remarked: “I thought this was different than the internet. This is real life.” Then, as the crowd expressed their support for the musician, another protester told her: “I’m watching dying children. That hurts.”
In response, Spektor said: “I think you should go because this is not the place for that conversation. I’m a real person who came here to play music. If anybody wants to walk out, this is your chance. Does anybody else want to take a walk? You can.” The footage then shows some audience members leaving.
The singer then told the crowd about how she immigrated to the US from the Soviet Union as a child, sharing: “The only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this shit. I only speak English because I came from a country where people were treating Jews as others, and now I’m being othered here, and it sucks. It’ll be nice if one of my family’s generation didn’t have to go to a new country and learn a new language, just stay put, have nice lives, you guys.”
Watch the full interaction below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZkIl-2f6Sk
This is not the first time a concert has been interrupted by pro-Palestine protestors. Last year, Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke clashed on stage with a protester at a solo Melbourne show.
In a later post speaking out on his stance about Palestine and Israel, the singer explained that “some guy shouting at me from the dark last year when I was picking up a guitar to sing the final song alone in front of 9000 people in Melbourne didn’t really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
Yorke also hit at “social media witch-hunts (nothing new) on either side pressurising artists and whoever they feel like that week to make statements”.
He added that he “could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanisation of others”, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and his crew of extremists are totally out of control” whilst also criticising Hamas for their “truly horrific acts” of their October 2023 attack at the Israeli music festival Supernova.
Figures like Reggie Watts have criticised Yorke’s statement, with Watts saying he was “disappointed to see that Thom’s statement centers his hurt feelings and frames his fans’ demands for him to speak up as a “social media witch hunt,” instead of recognizing the urgency of their call for him to speak out against the world-historical humanitarian crisis in Palestine.”
