(JNS.org) Pop superstar Alicia Keys said on Friday, May 31 that she will continue with her planned performance in Tel Aviv on July 4, despite calls from the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement to cancel the event. In a letter posted on a pro-BDS website, Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters and author Alice Walker both urged Keys to cancel the performance. Waters, who recently helped persuade Stevie Wonder not to perform at a Los Angeles fundraiser for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, wrote, “We must stand united with all our brothers and sisters against racism, colonialism, segregation and apartheid.”

But Keys dismissed the appeal, believing that music can help bring peace. “I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show,” Alicia Keys told the New York Times.