(JNS) New Zealand-born pop star Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, best known by the stage name Lorde, cancelled her June 2018 show in Tel Aviv following pressure from the anti-Israel BDS movement. 

The musician’s cancellation was announced in a statement released Sunday in which she said it was “the right decision at this time.” Lorde’s move on the concert in Israel came shortly after the show was announced earlier this month. 

The BDS movement cheered the cancellation, with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel thanking the artist on Twitter for “heeding appeals from your fans against Israel’s art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians.”

Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev called on Lorde to “be a pure heroine, like the title of your first album, a pure culture hero, free of any external—and if I may add, delusional—political considerations.”

Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand Yitzhak Gerberg also appealed to Lorde over the cancelled show, and offered to meet with the singer to “discuss Israel and its role as the only democracy in the Middle East.”

“By succumbing to the hateful agenda of the few who support BDS you encourage animosity in the region,” Gerberg wrote on Facebook. “Music should unite not divide. Reactions driven by hatred lead to continued conflict. But solutions come from engagement and lead to compromise, co-operation, and peace.”

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