(JNS) American comedy legend Chris Rock this week took his act to Israel, performing in the country for the first time before a crowd of 10,000 at Tel Aviv’s Menorah Mivtachim Arena. The comedian performed Jan. 9, in defiance of calls issued by the anti-Israel BDS movement to cancel the show. “I’m loving this country. Israel, yeah!” Rock said in between raucous applause and laughter.

Leading up to Rock’s Israel performance, the BDS movement penned a letter to the comedian alleging that the “Jewish-Israeli majority” considers non-Jewish African asylum seekers to be “cancer.” Rock’s show in Israel was part of his second global comedy tour since 2009. While his performance in Tel Aviv was his first act in the Jewish state, he previously visited the country in 2008 with celebrities Ben Stiller and Jada Pinkett Smith for the premiere of the animated film “Madagascar 2,” in which Rock voiced the character Marty the zebra.