A Londoner of Irish Catholic heritage, George O’Dowd is not himself Jewish. But in a recent interview with The Telegraph, he expressed solidarity with Israel, linking it to personal friendships. “I have a lot of Jewish friends and there would never be a situation where I would turn my back on them,” he said.
In his new song, he has a dig at fellow musicians who have been vocal in their support of Palestine, singing: “You condemn the Jews, with selective memory / Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep / Propaganda fuelled by the internet feels so weak.” George has notably rejected calls from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and its No Music For Genocide initiative to cut ties with Israel. Supporters of a boycott include Massive Attack, Damon Albarn, Bjork, Lorde, Wolf Alice, Fontaines DC and Brian Eno.
Boy George is not the only significant songwriter to have supported Israel’s right to defend its own existence with a pithy ditty. Morrissey gave us the hymn-like Israel in 2017 (“Israel / I can’t answer for what armies do / They are not you, they are not you”). And Bob Dylan came in for criticism in 1983 for his sarcastic rocker Neighbourhood Bully, written following international condemnation of Israel bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor in Operation Opera (“Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad / The bombs were meant for him, he was supposed to feel bad / He’s the neighbourhood bully”).
Personally, I am fascinated by protest music. I have noted before how rare it has become for young artists to express political opinions in a song. It is increasingly left to the old guard (Bruce Springsteen, U2, Massive Attack, Billy Bragg) to stand up for things they believe in – probably because they feel immune to commercial pressures. You don’t have to agree (or disagree) with Boy George to admire his willingness to put his convictions on the line. Or as he sings himself: “I don’t feel brave, I just need to behave like a human.”
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