Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor candidly addressed pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend who interrupted her show by shouting "free Palestine."
"You're just yelling at a Jew," Spektor, who is Jewish and emigrated to New York from the Soviet Union as a child, told the protester in the crowd at Revolution Hall Saturday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which noted that more fans began shouting "free, free Palestine," while pro-Israel audience members chanted "Am Israel Chai," which is Hebrew for "the people of Israel live."
According to reports, one protester charged the stage while shouting "free Palestine."
"I don't know what he thinks he's doing," Spektor said. "I really appreciate the security."
Before the show could resume, another attendee proceeded to shout, "There is a genocide happening. I'm watching children dying, that hurts."
"You can leave the show if you want, this is not an internet comment section, I know you're mistaking my show for a YouTube video," Spektor said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I think you should go, this is not the place for that conversation. I'm a real person who came here to play music. If anybody wants to walk out, this is your chance. Does anybody else want to take a walk? You can."
A handful of fans reportedly walked out of the show.
"The only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this [expletive]," Spektor said. "I only speak English because I came from a country where people treated Jews as othered, and I'm being othered here, and it sucks. It'd be nice if one of my family's generation didn't have to go to a new country and learn a new language and just stay put. Have nice lives, you guys."
Spektor has been vocal about her support of Israel, taking to social media days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Nova Music Festival attack, to share her views.
"If you've devalued Jewish life so much that mourning murdered Jewish children at a festival, raped women, and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust has offended you — leave," she wrote.
"If you think that this was 'a result'; 'deserved', or some other freakish & heartless idea — you've dehumanized Jewish people living in Israel to a point where you yourself have lost much humanity."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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