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Israeli Court Enters Judgment Against New Zealand BDS Activists for Causing Singer to Cancel Tel Aviv Concert

On October 10, 2018, the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court ordered two anti-Israel activists in New Zealand to pay a total of NIS 45,000 in damages, plus nearly NIS 11,000 in attorney’s fees, to three Israeli teenagers who claimed injury under an Israeli anti-boycott law when New Zealand singer “Lorde” canceled an announced Tel Aviv performance. This cancelation was an apparent deference to the activists’ call for a cultural boycott of the Jewish State.  Shortly after the Israeli venue of Lorde’s concert was announced in December 2017, New Zealand BDS activists, Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab published an open letter to Lorde in an online New Zealand magazine urging her to cancel the event due to, alleged, Israeli oppression of Palestinians. Lorde publicly thanked the activists for the letter via Twitter, and the show in Tel Aviv was subsequently canceled. The three Israeli teens purchased tickets for the concert and were forced to accept a refund when the event was canceled. With the assistance of Shurat HaDin, the teens filed a lawsuit in Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court against the two New Zealand activists for violating Israel’s anti-boycott law, by causing Lorde to cancel her Tel Aviv concert. When the defendants failed to respond to the complaint, the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court entered judgment in favor of the three Israeli teens.