No one is more frustrated about this than the BDS group that calls itself Metalheads Against Apartheid. As one of its members lamented in February:
Metalwashing?16 Israelis signed the letter? And they are bragging about it?
The trend to attract metal bands to play in Israel is not new. I’m going to take some credit for coining this little-known term. The concept was gleaned from the “pinkwashing” term, which has gone mainstream. Similar to “pinkwashing,” “metalwashing” is a way for Israel to gain acceptance through reaching out to metal fans. The number of heavy metal bands that have taken a liking to Israel and shut their eyes to Israel’s war crimes, human rights abuses, and violation of international law is growing. Apartheid Israel appears to have strong support from some metal bands. The question is, why? (I’ll leave you to ponder that)
The growing BDS movement continues to ask metal bands to cancel, and the Israeli-led co-resistance movement was prompted to write a letter entitled “A letter to all metal bands,” asking them to refrain from playing in the apartheid state. Sixteen Israelis signed the letter. The only metal band so far to cancel has been August Burns Red.
Here’s a partial list of bands whom have screamed, distorted their amps, and wore a lot of black for the stages of Tel Aviv:
Napalm Death, Metallica, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Linkin Park, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Looking ahead, Guns N’ Roses, Scorpions, Opeth and Dark Tranquility plan to play this year and Lamb of God plans to return.
Now what happened with the MAA's only "victory" of August Burns Red?
At the time, BDSers were ecstatic and thanked the band, especially as it happened on the first anniversary of the Mavi Marmara.
August Burns Red, a phenomenally popular Christian metalcore band, has just cancelled their June 9 concert in Israel. “They have no plans to reschedule,” says a reliabOKle source that must remain anonymous. They cancelled because they do not want to play in Israel.This comes as welcome news exactly a year to the date after the 2010 Israeli attack on civilians aboard the Freedom Flotilla, in which nine volunteers were killed execution style, and fifty others were seriously injured, one of which remains comatose.Only one problem: The band never said that they canceled because of BDS. And if they canceled because of the Mavi Marmara, then the other Middle Eastern country they canceled is most curious indeed. In the words of the band:
We are very sorry to announce that August Burns Red will be canceling our upcoming shows in Turkey and Tel Aviv due to commitments regarding out upcoming June 21st album release in the U.S.What this means is that despite organized campaigns, BDSers have not managed to convince a single metal band to boycott Israel.
Our apologies go out to all the awesome fans who were planning on coming to these shows and the many that already bought tickets, and to the promoters who worked so hard to make them happen.
We haven't canceled a show since 2005 so this has been a real hard thing for us to accept. We were really looking forward to these shows and plan on making it up to you as soon as possible.
The reason? Well, obviously, heavy metal is Zionist.
And Zionists use heavy metal to corrupt Muslims.
