26 February 2024 , 19:03
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Charlotte Church has responded to claims she was anti-Semitic after singing From The River To The Sea at a Sing For Palestine event.
The musician who shot to fame as a child singing classical music has taken to social media to address the claims made about her and insisted that she is far from anti-Semitic. Charlotte, 38, recently appeared with a 100-strong choir at Sing For Palestine event in Caerphilly, south Wales.
Footage which has been shared on social media saw Charlotte leading the choir singing various songs, including one which critics have claimed calls for Israel to be destroyed and has been branded anti-Semitic. One clip also saw Charlotte singing "Stop the Occupation" at the event on Saturday evening, with many hitting out at her.
Charlotte Church has hit out after she was branded anti-Semitic (Instagram)
It comes after she appeared at a Sing For Palestine event over the weekend (Instagram)Taking to Instagram, she said: "Just to clarify my intentions there. I am in no way anti-Semitic. Fighting for the liberation of all people, I have a deep heart for all religion and all difference and it was a beautiful, beautiful event. But unfortunately, the powers that be can't have that.
"[They] can't have such a powerful symbol of resistance as what we worked towards on Saturday. We sang lots of other beautiful songs… of liberation and freedom, Arabic songs, Welsh songs, South African songs from the anti-Apartheid movement, the lyrics of which were adapted to the situation in Palestine."
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Charlotte went on to state that the concert ended with the chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." She went on to say: "Clearly if you know the history of it all, not an antisemitic chant calling for the obliteration of Israel. It is not that in any way shape or form. It is calling for the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians."
The Call My Name singer dismissed the allegations (ITV)Workers from Campaign Against Antisemitism have previously claimed the song River To the Sea is both deeply offensive and also threatening. They have since accused Charlotte of being "tone deaf" and also called for the charity commission to look into the event. Speaking to the Sun, they said: "At best Charlotte Church has been tone deaf but at worst she is using her voice to fan the flames of hatred.
"You cannot stoop lower than using your stardom to teach kids to sing extremist lyrics in a village hall." Meanwhile, on X, she has come under fire, with one person saying: "Charlotte Church: voice of an angel, sh*t for brains." Elsewhere, Rabbi Jonathan Romain said: "Dear Charlotte Church: Let me translate for you - when you say 'From the river to the sea' it means expelling Jews from the Jordan to the Mediterranean i.e. from the Land of Israel entirely & destroying a nation. Creating a Palestinian state should not mean eradicating Israel."