The United States is once again treating Israel as the enemy. This time the State Department is targeting four Israeli performing artists, including a children’s performer, a male vocalist and a hip hop duo who released the song “Harbu Darbu” at the start of the October 7 war. The song, which went viral, calls for victory against the Hamas barbarians who tortured, mutilated, kidnapped and slaughtered some 1,200 people on one of Judaism’s holiest days.
Warning: Graphic language.
The words “harbu darbu” come from an Arabic war cry in Syria that has become part of the Israeli slang culture: they mean, “war and punches.”
In the song Ness and Stila (Nesia Levy and Dor Soroker) refer to the terrorists as the children of Amalek (those who attacked and slaughtered the weakest among the Jewish population as they were fleeing Egypt), and call upon all the various IDF military units to crush the enemy.
The artists were scheduled to appear at a performance in Miami, Florida, but in order to do so, they needed artists’ visas. The State Department has declined to issue those visas.
Israeli children’s performer Dod Haim (Haim Osadon) and vocalist Lior Narkis also did not receive the required visas. Both were to appear at the concert as well.
“My dear and beloved audience, although the show in Miami was closed several months ago, my team and I prepared for the show in a special way. Unfortunately I was unable to perform for you because until this moment, the production has not been able to obtain for me and for other artists who were invited to participate in the event the artist visa that is required in order to legally perform in the United States,” Osadon wrote on his Instagram account.
“I hoped until the last moment that the bureaucratic matter would be sorted out, but unfortunately because the performance will take place on Sunday and it is now Friday morning Israel time, I am forced to announce that I will not be able to make it to this performance as a law-abiding person.
“I apologize to everyone who waited for me and wrote to me. It was important for me to clarify the real reason why I didn’t make it to the show,” he added.
Narkis explained his absence in an Instagram post as well.
“My dear and beloved audience, even though I’m already here, I was prevented from holding the performances that were planned, due to bureaucratic reasons,” Narkis wrote.
“We were promised that we would receive an artist visa so that we could perform legally, however so far the requested approval has not been received. Unfortunately, we are forced to postpone all performances in the United States. We have come this far to give you our heart and soul. I believe that everything is for the best. We pray for good news for all of us,” he added.
The State of Israel was officially admitted to the United States Visa Waiver Program amid great fanfare last September. Under the program, Israelis are not supposed to have to wait to obtain a visa to visit the US; instead, Israelis are supposed to be able to request visa-free entry to the US, and vice versa.
However, there’s a catch: performers require a special visa, and the State Department can and did arbitrarily refuse to grant the authorization for these artists.
No explanation was provided for the denial, which essentially constitutes an economic and cultural sanction against the performers, who are from a country with which the US continues to declare the existence of its so-called “unbreakable bond.”
The move also follows a significant “pause” on the delivery of a shipment of bombs purchased from the US by the Israel Defense Forces along with continued pressure on Israel to refrain from completing its military operations in Gaza, aimed at destroying the terrorist organization which has repeatedly pledged to annihilate the Jewish State and its Jews.
