Colombian band Bomba Estero on Tuesday insisted on playing in Israel in spite of calls to join a boycott of the Middle Eastern country.
In a press release, the band said it will play in the Israeli city of Jaffa where it was included in the line-up of the local Jaffa Nights Festival at the invitation of the Colombian embassy in Israel.
The Colombian section of the “Boycott Israel” campaign has appealed to the band to turn down the invitation to play in Jaffa to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
An online petition reads that “we hope that Bomba Estereo understands that playing in Israel today is akin to playing in apartheid South Africa, and that they make the same decision.”
MORE: Colombia’s Bomba Estereo Asked To Join Israel Boycott, Cancel Show
However, the band insisted on playing, ignoring the boycott because “our purpose as a band has always been to share a message of peace, love and brotherhood with all peoples we bring our art.”
Additionally, the band said that “we will not allow our music to be politicized. We will continue playing in any place where we can spread our message of tolerance, without this meaning we support causes of individual governments.”
“We come from Colombia, a country in conflict where injustice and human rights abuses occur every day. We think that the way to solve, or at least try to alleviate these types of situations from our side is not isolation of censorship which not playing in one place or another means. On the contrary, we believe in making music a universal language and a unity among peoples,” the band added.