\n\tSinger-songwriter Regina Spektor\u2019s concert in Portland, Maine, was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend, as some attendees in the audience shouted \u201cfree Palestine\u201d chants during the middle of her show on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re just yelling at a Jew,\u201d Spektor, who is Jewish and emigrated to New York from the Soviet Union as a child, is seen saying on a fan-captured video to a protester in the crowd at Revolution Hall after he started shouting \u201cfree fucking Palestine.\u201d Other pro-Israel attendees in the audience were also shouting \u201cAm Israel Chai,\u201d which is Hebrew for \u201cthe people of Israel live.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStereogum posted the fan-captured video on social media, further reporting that one protester had charged the stage shouting \u201cfree Palestine,\u201d citing accounts of others in attendance.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know what he thinks he\u2019s doing,\u201d Spektor said. \u201cI really appreciate the security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSpektor had voiced her support of Israel in the past, including just days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Nova Music<\/a> Festival attack, where she wrote that \u201cif you\u2019ve devalued Jewish life so much that mourning murdered Jewish children at a festival raped women, and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust has offended you \u2014 leave.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnother fan started shouting \u201cfree, free Palestine\u201d after the \u201cfree fucking Palestine\u201d chant as well. \u201cI thought this was different than the internet, this is real life,\u201d Spektor said.<\/p>\n \n\tA third attendee interrupted as well before the show could continue, saying that \u201cthere is a genocide happening. I\u2019m watching children dying, that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou can leave the show if you want, this is not an internet comment section, I know you\u2019re mistaking my show for a YouTube video,\u201d Spektor continued. \u201cI think you should go, this is not the place for that conversation. I\u2019m a real person who came here to play music. If anybody wants to walk out, this is your chance. Does anybody else want to take a walk? You can.\u201d In the fan video, a few more fans can be seen walking out.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this shit. I only speak English because I came from a country where people treated jews as othered, and I\u2019m being othered here and it sucks. It\u2019d be nice if one of my family\u2019s generation didn\u2019t have to go to a new country and learn a new language and just stay put. Have nice lives, you guys,\u201d Spektor said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe incident at Spektor\u2019s concert reflects the continued tension within the music community on how to address the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict<\/a>. Groups like Kneecap<\/a> and Bob Vylan have courted significant controversy for their pro-Palestine, anti-Israel messaging on the music festival circuit over the past several months. In Kneecap\u2019s case, the Irish hip-hop group shared a message on the screen behind them during their Coachella weekend two set that read \u201cfuck Israel, free Palestine.\u201d English punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, meanwhile, lost their U.S. visas and were dropped by UTA after inciting a \u201cdeath to the IDF\u201d chant at Glastonbury back in June.<\/p>\n \n\tThose actions caught criticism from Jewish advocacy groups, who called the messaging antisemitic. Both Kneecap and Bob Vylan denied those claims, stating that their words were aimed at the Israeli government, not Jewish people.<\/p>\n