Pet Shop Boys Won't Cave To Boycott Israel Lobby- Israel Not Apartheid State

The Boycott Israel tools are at it again, this time targeting the upcoming concert of mega successful British electronic pop duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of The Pet Shop Boys- who are no longer boys but rather middle-aged men. Perhaps that's why they're refusing to cave- they're old enough to know better, not that there aren't old fools who have embraced the boycott mentality. Take writer Alice Walker who recently told Alicia Keys (who also refused to be intimidated into canceling her concert) that she would lose her soul if she performed in Tel Aviv.

It's the same old story- Israel is an apartheid state, which it clearly is not. A poster featuring the singers wearing glasses with "1 child killed every three days" and "2 kids caged every day" plastered on the lenses, has been produced by a pro-Palestinian group in the U.K. called Innovative Minds appealing to the duo to:

"Open your eyes to the ugly reality of apartheid Israel. Cancel your Tel Aviv concert. Stand with the oppressed."

But The Pet Shop Boys aren't buying it. Their response to the demands:

 'Israel has universal suffrage and equality of rights for all its citizens, both Jewish and Arab'

Neil Tennant said of the criticism:

"I don't agree with this comparison of Israel to apartheid-era South Africa," Tennant wrote on the group's official website. "It's a caricature. Israel has (in my opinion) some crude and cruel policies based on defense; it also has universal suffrage and equality of rights for all its citizens, both Jewish and Arab.

"In apartheid-era South Africa, artists could only play to segregated audiences; in Israel anyone who buys a ticket can attend a concert."

Of course, there will be the pro-Pali demonstrations, including a protest in front of the British Film Institute. The lads will be attending a screening of the Sergei M. Eisenstein classic 1925 silent pic "Battleship Potemkin" which features a brand new soundtrack composed by them.

Good on them!

H/T CAMERA