Back in 2016, the band Garbage – one of my favorite growing up – performed in Israel and front woman Shirley Manson stuck it to the BDS-holes.
As a musician I hold on to my right to travel to Israel and not be accused of denying the State of Palestine or of being on one side of the conflict over another.
This is NOT the case.
I know enough to understand that I don’t know enough about much.
I stand in the middle , hoping that peace prevails and the art of negotiation and compromise is practiced. That weapons are dropped and the killing stops.
I maintain that it is a privilege, even at times a responsibility to travel when given the opportunity to do so.To listen, to learn, to try to understand.
The conflict that exists between Palestine and Israel is multi generational and bewilderingly complex, far beyond any simplistic, broad stroke politics.
Far greater minds than mine or yours have struggled to offer up any satisfactory solutions to bring peace to this region.
In the meantime I care only about the people.
I play music because music in its purest form brings joy and an escape to fans irregardless of race, creed,sexuality, gender or economic politics .
I am interested only in the advancement and pursuit of peace, tolerance, compromise and understanding.
Well, that was then. Here is present day Shirley Manson – clad in a palestinian Arab flag and keffiyeh – taking out her frustration on a man in the crowd at Melbourne’s Good Things Festival. All because she noticed a giant beach ball moving around in the crowd.
With bonus superfluous mention of 20,000 palestinian Arab kids (an estimate provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, mind you):
Shirley Manson of @garbage reaffirming the stereotypes of the anti-Israel crowd as deeply disturbed and plain nasty people pic.twitter.com/L3INu1hjk5
— David Lange (@Israellycool) December 8, 2025
So much for the enlightened artist rising above “simplistic, broad-stroke politics” and preaching “peace, tolerance, compromise and understanding!” She’s gone from rejecting BDS bullying to becoming indistinguishable from the bullies, screaming at a guy with a beach ball and regurgitating unverified Hamas numbers like they’re gospel.
And it’s not the first indication that Shirley and her bandmates have become more and more like the name of the band – their social media has been rife with anti-Israel drivel following October 7.
Garbage, indeed.
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