'Stop bullying artists!' Nick Cave vows to perform in Israel to protest boycott campaign against Jewish state

Facing down his critics, the rock singer Nick Cave says he will perform in Israel in protest against a movement to "bully musicians" into not playing in the country.

He and his band the Bad Seeds, will end their Skeleton Tree world tour at the Menorah Arena in Tel Aviv on Monday (20 November).

He had been urged by Artists for Palestine UK, which includes Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, to cancel the show "while apartheid remains".

But Cave said in a press conference he wanted to take a "principled stand" against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which pushes for artists and other organisations to shun Israel.

He said he took exception to pleas from people like producer Brian Eno to join Artists For Palestine.

"For me, we came to Israel 20 years ago or so and did a couple of tours of Israel. I felt a huge connection with Israel. People talk about loving a country, but I just felt, on some sort of level, a connection that I couldn't really describe.

"If you do play Israel, you have to go through a kind of public humiliation from Roger Waters and co - and no one wants to be publicly shamed," he said.

"So, after a lot of thought and consideration I rang up my people and said we're doing a European tour and Israel.

"Because it suddenly became very important to me to make a stand against those people that are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians and to silence musicians," he said.

Back in July, Radiohead defended their show in Tel Avivsaying that their performance did not mean that they endorsed the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Singer Thom Yorke said in a tweet: "We've played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others."

Israel says the BDS campaign is more than a protest movement and is trying to delegitimise the state.