Israeli singer to perform in Marrickville, epicenter of Australian BDS!

This is so great:

Marrickville mayor Fiona Byrne has a prior engagement and will not be attending tonight's concert by the award-winning Israeli singer Efrat Gosh at the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville Road.

Gosh, named Israeli female artist of the year last year, was originally going to perform just a single gig in Sydney last weekend.

However, the Israeli embassy in Canberra and the Zionist Federation of Australia decided to promote a second show as a direct consequence of the council's controversial "boycott Israel" proposal earlier this year.

Led by Byrne and her fellow Greens with the support of Labor councillors, the council planned to join the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

It earned condemnation from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, as well as messages of support from polemicist John Pilger and human rights lawyer Julian Burnside.

A more recent pat on the shoulder came from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The move was eventually scuppered after a vocal three-hour council meeting in April.

"We wanted to bring Israeli culture specifically to Marrickville to show another colour of Israel," said the Israeli embassy spokeswoman, Einat Weiss.

"We realised that a lot of people who live in Marrickville didn't know anything about the real Israel."

Update: More here. (h/t Israel Muse)