Image by Getty Images

YouTube removed a video calling on Alicia Keys to cancel a concert in Tel Aviv.

Set to Keys’ popular song “This Girl is on Fire,” the video was removed on Monday, according to the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

The video, “Alicia Keys, Come Together with Your Sisters, Boycott Apartheid,” was removed, a notification by YouTube said, due to a copyright infringement claim by “Alicia Keys c/o Ziffren Brittenheim LLP.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Image by Getty Images

It showed Palestinian performance and visual artist Rana Hamadeh standing on an Israeli military vehicle waving a Palestinian flag.

“It is enough that we face physical and emotional violence and restrictions on our daily lives. But now we are also being silenced on the internet,” Hamadeh said in a statement distributed by the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. “I think if Alicia Keys understood the call to boycott, she would agree to honor it.”

Keys affirmed her decision to play in Israel in an interview published last month in The New York Times. She has been under pressure to cancel the July 4 concert.

The appeal to Keys to boycott Israel came first from Alice Walker in an open letter posted on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s website. Calls also came from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and numerous pro-Palestinian organizations.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount