400 musicians remove catalogs from Israel

For hip-hop duo Massive Attack, their involvement should come as no surprise following a June Manchester concert that featured footage of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in their visual presentation.

By Jewish Breaking News

Hip-hop duo Massive Attack has announced they are pulling their entire catalog from streaming platforms in Israel along with hundreds of other artists in what’s becoming the music industry’s most significant boycott of the Jewish State.

While most boycotting artists geo-blocked their music exclusively in Israel through the “No Music for Genocide” campaign, Massive Attack went further by demanding Universal Music Group remove their catalog from Spotify globally, citing CEO Daniel Ek’s stake in Helsing, a defense contractor developing artificial intelligence systems for fighter jets used by the Israeli military.

“In our view, the historic precedent of effective artist action during apartheid South Africa and the apartheid, war crimes and genocide now being committed by the state of Israel renders the ‘No Music For Genocide’ campaign imperative,” the British band wrote Thursday on Instagram.

“In light of the significant investments by its CEO in a company producing military munition drones & AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made an additional request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories.”

The “No Music for Genocide” mission statement invokes 1991 South Africa, claiming cultural boycotts helped topple apartheid and can now “shift public opinion toward justice” regarding Gaza.

The movement has already attracted over 400 artists including Grammy nominees Japanese Breakfast and BADBADNOTGOOD, Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers, and rising acts like Amyl and The Sniffers—each removing their catalogs from Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms operating in Israel.

For Massive Attack, their involvement should come as no surprise following a June Manchester concert that featured footage of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in their visual presentation.

At the time, the band defended that decision as artistic commentary rather than endorsement, claiming the Sinwar footage “interplays with scenes from Jean Cocteau’s film Orpheus” to create “a tone of horrified lament.”

Massive Attack has also demanded that all Barclays branding be removed from the venue, describing the bank as “synonymous with the large-scale financing of new fossil fuel extraction, and billions of dollars of investments in arms companies that supply Israel in its genocidal onslaught of Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank.”

More recently, the group defended Belfast rap group Kneecap after one member was filmed waving a Hezbollah flag on stage.