San Antonio Mayor, 20 Local Jewish Groups Call for Cancellation of Kanye West July 4 Concert in Texas City

Shiryn Ghermezian

Rapper Kanye West holds his first rally in support of his presidential bid in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, July 19, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Randall Hill

The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, along with a coalition of 20 local Jewish organizations have called for the cancellation of a July 4 concert by Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) in the city, after several of his shows worldwide were cancelled due to his past antisemitic actions.

“Military City USA should not host someone with a record of hate speech and antisemitic comments in a city-funded facility like our Alamodome — not ever, and certainly not on July 4th, our Nation’s 250th birthday,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “Standing up to antisemitism is exactly what it takes to achieve a more perfect Union.”

Tickets for the concert at the city-owned Alamodome went on sale Thursday and remain available for purchase on Ticketmaster and Ye’s website. The concert is part of Ye’s international tour promoting his new album, “Bully.”

A coalition of Jewish organizations — including the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio – issued a joint statement on Monday urging the city of San Antonio and Alamodome management to “decline the use of the publicly owned venue” for Ye’s July 4 concert and to review the policies and procedures that led to booking the performance.

“This request is not a call for censorship,” the coalition explained in part. “We hold free speech among our most fundamental values, not despite our history, but because of it. Ye has the same constitutional rights as every other American. He is free to speak, and private venues are free to host him. The question before the city is not whether Ye may perform somewhere. It is whether public resources and a publicly owned facility should be used to host and elevate someone whose public conduct has been marked by repeated hate speech.”

“Accountability and growth are possible for anyone, but they must be demonstrated through conduct, not merely proclaimed,” they added. “San Antonio’s values of dignity, inclusion, and respect are best reflected when public institutions refuse to lend public resources to those who repeatedly promote antisemitism and hate.”

Ye will perform twice in Tampa, Florida, later this month before his San Antonio concert. The Grammy winner’s scheduled shows in Tampa have also faced calls for cancellation.

Ye postponed his scheduled performance this summer in Marseille, France, “until further notice” after local officials, including the city’s mayor, said they refused to let him perform. Earlier this month, Ye’s July 25 concert in Prague was cancelled when the venue set to host him pulled out. His scheduled performance this month in Poland was canceled in May by the venue due to “formal and legal reasons.” Poland’s Culture and Heritage Minister Marta Cienkowska supported the decision, saying: “In a country scarred by the history of the Holocaust, we cannot pretend this is just entertainment. Artistic freedom does not mean giving a free pass to everything. Culture cannot be a space for those who exploit it to spread bigotry.”

In April, the United Kingdom banned Ye from entering the country to headline the Wireless Festival in London that was planned for July and as a result, the festival was canceled. Ye was also denied a visa to enter Australia last year.

In a Wall Street Journal ad published in January, Ye apologized for his antisemitic rampage last year, during which he sold shirts with swastikas, released a song titled “Heil Hitler,” and published several antisemitic posts on social media, including one in which he declared, “I’m a Nazi.”