JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Red Hot
Chili Peppers have canceled a concert in Tel Aviv because of a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel. The Los Angeles-based funk-rockers are the first big-name band known to cancel a concert in the Jewish state since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September.
Most performers have refused to come to the area at all.
Some 20,000 tickets had already been sold to the concert, which was to be held at the end of August near Tel Aviv, said organizer Shuki Weiss. He said ticket holders would get their money back.
"Following the urgency and the increasing consistency of the incidents over the past weekend the band was forced to reach a decision to delay their visit although they truly desired... to visit Israel," Weiss said.
Last Thursday, a suicide bomber from the Islamic movement Hamas blew himself up at a pizzeria in Jerusalem, killing 15 people including at least one U.S. citizen.
On Sunday, another suicide bomber killed himself and wounded 15 at a restaurant in Kiryat Motzkin, northern Israel. The State Department has warned Americans to put off travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"It always comes as a surprise because...the production and the activity went on until yesterday (Monday) afternoon," Weiss told Israel Radio after a broadcast of the Chili Peppers hit song "Californication". "But I can't say that over the last weekend there weren't some fears in my heart," he added.
The bloodshed in which nearly 680 people have been killed has nearly crushed the tourism industry in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Tourism to Israel has dropped 50 percent, forcing some hotels to shut down and airlines to cut back on flights.
In Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem, the town of Jesus Christ's birth and a scene of frequent gunfights, hotels and souvenir shops stand empty.
Weiss said he hoped the Red Hot Chili Peppers would come to Israel once the violence died down. "The idea of bringing the Chili Peppers to Israel...is something we have been working on for years," he said.
