The overturning of the decision by a Spanish festival on Wednesday to cancel the singer Matisyahu’s planned concert for political reasons was a major victory for the World Jewish Congress and the FJCE, and it marked a defeat for the BDS movement.

On Sunday afternoon, August 16, a member of the WJC professional staff in New York became aware that the American-Jewish music artist Matisyahu had been disinvited from the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Spain after he had refused to sign a pro-Palestinian statement. He alerted members of the senior WJC staff in New York and Brussels who, within a matter of hours, in consultation with myself and with the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain (FCJE) and their President, Isaac Querub Caro, drafted a statement condemning the festival’s action, especially since it was the recipient of public funds. I then consulted with our President, Ronald S. Lauder, and the statement was issued in his name that same day.
As a result of effective and aggressive actions by the WJC media team in Brussels and New York, under the leadership of Media Relations Director Michael Thaidigsmann, the statement was picked up by wire services and news outlets across the globe, including the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse and in particular the Spanish news wires EFE and Europa Press.

The ensuing international media attention contributed to the publication of strong editorials in El País and El Mundo, Spain’s best-selling and most influential newspapers, which fully backed the stance taken by the WJC and the FCJE. As a consequence, there was strong pressure on both the festival organizers and Spanish authorities to react.

Ronald then sent a strong letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, calling renewed attention to the anti-Semitic nature of the festival’s actions. The letter was shared by the WJC team with various wire services and was prominently featured in many news outlets, across the globe, including, through AP, the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC News and others (Link: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/world-jewish-group-sends-pm-letter-concert-cancellation-33171659)

All this contributed to the festival organizers reversing their decision on Wednesday and reinviting Matisyahu. The festival’s head told the Spanish news agency EFE that this had been the worst time ever for the festival in its 22-year-long history.

When the decision was announced, the WJC prepared and issued a joint press release with the FCJE welcoming this development, but once again pointing out the insidious nature of the BDS movement. This statement, too, was widely covered.

Overall, the WJC’s clear message reached an estimated 40 million people in Spain, the United States and around the world through newspapers and online media. As the Associated Press put it: “The change [of heart by the Rototom festival organizers] comes after the World Jewish Congress wrote to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, calling on him to condemn the cancellation, adding that the “scandalous behavior” of Rototom Sunsplash festival organizers demanded firm action by Spain.” (Link: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/19/world/europe/ap-eu-spain-matisyahu-concert.html) The total number of WJC media placements is numbered at approximately 760.

Moreover, the WJC’s social media team managed to reach around 125,000 people through its coverage of the issue on Facebook and Twitter, triggering a lively discussion on these digital platforms.

Thanks to the effective rapid response and efficient cooperative work by our WJC team – which included, in addition to Michael Thaidigsmann, David Meluskey, executive assistant to the CEO, General Counsel Menachem Rosensaft, Chief Program Officer Sonia Gomes de Mesquita, our media consultant Ryan Greiss, and Shira Copans, the head of the WJC Executive Office – the WJC and the FCJE are now widely seen in Spain and throughout the world as having played the central role in first bringing the anti-Semitic character of the incident and the BDS Movement to public attention, then putting pressure on the Spanish authorities to react, and finally in getting the organizers of the festival to reverse themselves and reinvite Matisyahu.

As the president of World WIZO, our Vice President Tova Ben-Dov, put it in an email to her members on Thursday: “The World Jewish Congress works tirelessly for Am-Israel worldwide, and will continue to do so. Combatting Anti-Semitism and BDS isn’t easy but it can be effective and public opinion can be swayed, as reflected in this essence.”

On Wednesday evening, Matisyahu himself picked up the phone and contacted the WJC. He was put through to Ronald and thanked him for his and the WJC’s critical efforts on this matter.

Largely as a result of the WJC’s quick and effective action, a BDS manifestation in Spain that might otherwise have gone largely unnoticed received international scrutiny, was condemned by Spanish politicians and in the Spanish media (which are usually not pro-Israel or pro-Jewish), and was reversed, thus constituting a significant defeat for the BDS movement.

From my personal perspective, I am proud to be working with one of the most talented and most dedicated group of professionals anywhere, a team that we have built over the past two years and that has developed an amazing synergy. Together with an unsurpassed lay leadership, we are indeed a collective that has become one of the major political forces in the Jewish world today.

Our accomplishment in this case is also a perfect example of the effectiveness of this team’s rapid response capabilities and the WJC’s, and in particular Ronald’s, global diplomatic and political credibility.

It should be a case study for future initiatives to counter and fight blatantly anti-Semitic BDS manifestations.

Best regards,

Robert Singer
Chief Executive Officer
World Jewish Congress
Tel: +1 212 755 5770
Fax: +1 212 755 5883
www.worldjewishcongress.org