Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr is among the voices calling for a boycott of Lorde after the singer cancelled a concert next year in Israel.
“Boycott this bigot,” Barr tweeted on Dec. 24.
Lorde came under fire after announcing that she would perform in Tel Aviv in June. After a pair of fans posted an open letter critical of her decision – which they perceived as Lorde’s endorsement of Israel’s occupation of Palestine – the singer replied: “Noted! Been speaking w many people about this and considering all options. Thank u for educating me i am learning all the time too.”
In a statement only days later, Lorde said: “I pride myself on being an informed young citizen, and I had done a lot of reading and sought a lot of opinions before deciding to book a show in tel aviv, but I’m not too proud to admit I didn’t make the right call on this one.”
MORE: Lorde Rethinking Concert In Israel
This prompted Barr to accuse Lorde of caving to pressure from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The 65-year-old sitcom star – a vocal supporter of U.S. president Donald Trump – also retweeted a reaction from filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who wrote: "@lorde will play in Russia, with dictator leader, invader of sovereign nations. But not the 1 Jewish state. Anti semite?”
The Jerusalem Post slammed Lorde for scrapping her Tel Aviv concert and called her “clueless.”
In an editorial, the Post said: “Lorde is in a blissful state of unawareness, at least with regard to the history and reasons behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“By caving in to BDS pressure, Lorde let herself be used as a political tool and joined a short list of performers who backed out of shows in Israel out of some distorted sense of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
The Post accused Lorde of helping “spread lies” about Israel.
“Lorde is supposed to play music. Unfortunately, this time she let herself be played.”