Dave Matthews has spoken out against the way his pro-Palestinian views have been “twisted”.
Back in 2024, Matthews was part of a sizeable organised protest against the appearance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United States Congress, and said in an interview at the time that the visit was “obscene”, and a “disgusting show of support for someone that doesn’t deserve our support”.
More recently, he performed at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, and read out a pre-prepared speech shedding
On Friday (June 5), he performed in Raleigh and read a prepared speech clarifying his views, and stressing that they should “by no means be twisted into anyone thinking that I am bigoted or anti-Semitic in any way at all”.
While saying he fundamentally disagreed with the policies of Israel and the United States in their treatment of the civilian population in Gaza and the West Bank, he said that he had “a deep respect and love — for all my life that I can remember — and admiration for the culture and history of the Jewish people.”
Matthews said he didn’t think any group of people had “contributed more to the advancement and evolution of our understanding of each other”, and named several figures, including Albert Einstein, George Gershwin, Hannah Arendt, Howard Zinn and Anne Frank, as examples.
“I hold the Jewish people in the highest regard and it breaks my heart that my opinions borne out of deep commitment to nonviolent resolution and resistance can be twisted into serve any hateful, racist, or bigoted ideas,” he continued.
The issue is something Kneecap – who have also been ardent in their support of Palestine, have also had to address. Speaking to NME before sharing new album ‘Fenian‘ last month, Mo Chara said they understood that “religious divide serves absolutely nobody”.
“Anti-Semitism is a real issue, and it’s growing at the moment,” he added. “It’s something that genuinely needs to be talked about and needs to be tackled, but what happens is when you have the Zionist lobby labelling bands and actors as anti-Semitic just because they speak out against Israel, you’re starting to water down that term. We need to be talking about that term a lot more because it’s on the rise all over the world.
Similarly, Matthews’ post continued to say being accused of anti-Semitism “breaks my heart, and I am so sorry for any misunderstanding or pain I might’ve caused but my intention is to help bring an end to the seemingly endless violence in the world.”
He also mentioned October 7, saying he wasn’t sure if he should, but ultimately did. “On October 7th two and a half years ago, I was attending my dearest friend’s son’s bar mitzvah. It was a beautiful day of witnessing and respect and love for this young man,” he said.
“And it was interrupted by the horror and the violence on the other side of the world. An ongoing horror. But the violence borne out of that day against the Palestinian people is no less horrific and multiplies the death and the suffering over and over and over. I will never stop calling for an end to the violence in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon and for that matter, the Congo, and Sudan, and Ukraine.”
“Or the horrific violence against immigrants and their neighbours in our country. I am opposed to violence from any government to any people and against children most of all. Because all children are our children. Every one. But my deepest fear is that we are becoming numb to it. Let’s not do that. Let’s work as long as we can to make a better world for our children.”
Last September, the United Nations found that Israel had committed genocide. At the time, Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, said it was “clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” Pillay said. “The Commission also finds that Israel has failed to prevent and punish the commission of genocide, through failure to investigate genocidal acts and to prosecute alleged perpetrators.”
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of waging genocide, and denies committing any war crimes, maintaining that its operations are lawful acts of self-defence following Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens at the Nova Music Festival on October 7 2023, which killed over 1,100 people and saw 250 taken as hostages.