Dear Nick Cave,

We are writing to you as music fans, ‘ex Nick Cave fans’ and even some current - ‘hanging on by a thread Nick Cave fans’ who find your music increasingly unpalatable due to your refusal to recognise the plight of Palestinians and the call to boycott Israel - an illegal occupation and the longest in modern history - that stands accused by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of plausible genocide.

In your recent interview with Reason, your lack of understanding of the problems caused by Israel's Zionist project, and the global Boycott Divestments Sanctions movement (BDS) have left us stunned and confused as to how a seemingly intelligent human can make such astonishingly ridiculous statements.

You disagree with cultural boycotts and say they are not working. At the time of writing, with only weeks to go, your Glasgow gig still has over two thirds of tickets available. It seems like your refusal to boycott Israel is hitting your pocket, Nick.

The boycott of Israel is working, as internationally, people are choosing to withdraw their money from products linked to a genocidal illegal occupation. Feel free to check it out. 

And Nick, if you are determined to keep sneering at the growing BDS efforts of millions of us around the world, are you also happy to ignore the pleas of occupied Palestinians who have directly appealed to boycott Israel? 

Did you feel the same about the political and cultural boycott of South Africa, that contributed to the collapse of the brutal apartheid regime?

What is most staggering about your Reason interview is the fact that not once did you mention the injustices inflicted on Palestinians, who have been forced to live under Israel’s brutal occupation and in an apartheid system, deprived of basic human rights for 76 years.

Not once in your Reason interview did you refer to the ICJ ruling of a plausible genocide of Palestinians at the hands of their occupier. 

You ignored Israel’s well-documented war crimes; the horrific torture of men, women and children, the systematic targeting of doctors, journalists and academics, the bombing of camps, hospitals, schools, ambulances and aid distribution points, of football pitches used as concentration camps, the flour massacre, the mass graves, the rapes by Israeli soldiers, the deliberate deprivation of food, water and medical aid and the near destruction of Gaza by the illegal occupying force.

There was not one mention of any of this by you.

The closest you came to acknowledging the inhumane treatment at the hands of Israel was mentioning, ‘the horrific complications,’ which is possibly the most offensive term you can use to describe a genocide. Please call it what it is. Your use of language is deeply embarrassing. 

Nick, despite your dreadful comments, you are a well-read person and cannot be excused of ignorance about the Palestinian struggle. 

 We ask you to stop helping to normalise Israel’s war campaign and illegal occupation and to no longer perform in Israel until it abides by international law. You can choose not to side with genocide.

If you cannot find the moral backbone to do this, please stop saying you are doing it for the music. At least be honest about your thoughts on Zionism - a supremacist ideology - so that music fans unaware of your views can make an informed choice to withdraw their support. 

That is called boycotting, Nick.

This letter is by Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card (@redcardglasgow) and will be posted in Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files inbox.