\n\tThe U.K.\u2019s Jewish Leadership Council has issued a statement condemning the Wireless Festival for booking Ye (formerly\u00a0Kanye West<\/a>)\u00a0as the headliner of all three nights<\/a> (July 10-12) of the this year\u2019s event at Finsbury Park in London. A spokesperson for the Council told the Guardian<\/a><\/em>, \u201cIt is deeply irresponsible for Wireless festival to be headlining\u00a0Kanye West. The UK Jewish community is facing record levels of antisemitism, including a terrorist attack in Manchester, the attack on ambulances in Golders Green and foiled plots which would have killed many more.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWest has a long history of making antisemitic statements, from releasing a song called \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d to selling T-shirts with swastikas on them and declaring himself a Nazi.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWest has repeatedly used his platform to spread antisemitism and pro-Nazi messaging,\u201d the Council told the paper. \u201cHis most recent apology must be considered in the context that he went on to sell swastika T-shirts and release a song called Heil Hitler after apologizing previously. Any venue or festival should reconsider before providing their platform to Kanye West to spread his antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition, the U.K.\u2019s Campaign Against Antisemitism told Far Out<\/a><\/em> magazine that it was also vehemently opposed to the booking. \u201cKanye West has dedicated years of his life to trying to incite his followers to hate Jews,\u201d a spokesperson for the charity said. \u201cHe has more followers than there are Jews on Earth, so his incitement has a huge impact. His cycle of apology and relapse has become a routine, so as with any addict once again we must wait to see if this time is any different.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe charity noted that, as in the past, West\u2019s most recent apology for his hate speech came on the even of the release of a new album, Bully<\/em>, which dropped last week. \u201cIt is disappointing that venues have been so quick to invite someone who was so recently peddled conspiracy theories, Hitler worship and bigoted lies \u2013 including now one of the UK\u2019s biggest festival stages. If he remains on the right path and makes more effort to make amends, that is well and good, but if he returns to his old ways these venues will have much to answer for.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe festival run by Festival Republic, which is part of Live Nation, announced on Monday that West would headline all three nights of this year\u2019s event, similar to Drake\u2019s three-night stint last year, calling it a \u201cthree-night journey through his most iconic records.\u201d The shows in support Bully<\/em> will be West\u2019s first gigs in the UK in 11 years and come after the rapper, 48, took out a full-page ad<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> in January apologizing for his repeated incidents of hate speech against the Jewish people, claiming that his 2022 car crash caused brain damage that led to mental health issues.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst,\u201d Ye wrote. \u201cYou endured fear, confusion, humiliation and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.\u201d He added, \u201cIn that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it,\u201d claiming that he is now \u201ccommitted to accountability\u201d while saying he is \u201cnot a Nazi.\u201d West issued a similar apology in 2023, just ahead of the release<\/a> of his Vultures<\/em> album.<\/p>\n \n\tWest\u2019s once formidable music and fashion empire melted down in 2022 after the rapper went on a monthslong spree of antisemitic comments, including printing the neo-Nazi phrase \u201cWhite Lives Matter\u201d on shirts as his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show in October of that year, following an incident in which he said he was going \u201cdeath con [sic] 3 on Jewish people\u201d and later repeatedly praised Hitler and said he was a Nazi. <\/p>\n \n\tThose incidents, and several others like it, resulted in Ye losing lucrative deals with a number of former business partners<\/a>, including Balenciaga, Adidas, Gap, Foot Locker and label UMG, as well as the scrapping of a planned documentary and the talent agency CAA dropping him as a client, among many other sanctions.<\/p>\n \n\tYe headlined the Wireless Festival in 2014 and though he has performed less often since the backlash to his antisemitic comments, he is booked to make his return to the stage in the U.S. tonight (April 1) with the first of two shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. <\/p>\n
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