On October 4, 2024, Godspeed You! Black Emperor are set to release their new album “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28340 DEAD”. The album title refers to the reported number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza since the war between Hamas and Israel started on October 7.

 

GY!BE have long been supporters of the Palestinian cause. When releasing a previous album, they went to great lengths to announce to the world during its release that it will not be distributed in Israel because of the band’s objections to Israel’s policies.

 

As an Israeli fan of the band, I have always viewed boycott to be a horrible thing for a musician to do. Music is an opportunity to unite, bring people together, spread positive messages or encourage reflection. It can also be a tool to express critical views, opinions, disagreement and drive change. But if you’re boycotting the very people whom you’re criticizing, they will not hear your message, and you will not hear their side of the story or be able to find common ground.

You are in fact using your music to exclude, divide, and promote hate.

 

With this new album, GY!BE have once again decided to send a critical message and present just one side of the story in what is a long and complicated conflict.
They have chosen to release this album on the week of the one year anniversary of this atrocious terror attack, in what can be interpreted at best as disregarding the pain and suffering Israelis have been going through on and since October 7. At worst, one might even perceive this as support and justification of the attack.

​

I look at this album title, and see a group of people who want to promote good in the world, but are oblivious to their own consumption of years of Jew-hating lies and propaganda. They have let their music be weaponized in a heinous terrorist group’s fight against the people of a free and democratic country.

 

I created this sticker to encourage a more balanced discussion of the conflict. To consider BOTH sides. To be mindful of the sources that provide you with so-called “facts”. To expose the hypocrisy and hatred that drive musicians to be so outspoken about one injustice but so oblivious and ignorant of another.

 

It is also a way for fans of GY!BE who happen to be Israeli, Jewish or Zionists (supportive of the existence of a Jewish state), that feel excluded from their music, or even hated by the band, to reclaim their music. To allow themselves to listen to it and enjoy it despite the band’s views of them.

 

I encourage you to print these stickers at home or have them printed in bulk, go to your local record store, and make them available next to any copies of Godspeed’s new album. This way, people picking up a copy will receive a more balanced view, and have the option of putting it on their own copy, if they find GY!BE’s opinions to be extreme, unknowledgeable or divisive.

 

I DO NOT PROFIT FROM THESE STICKERS IN ANY WAY AND HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH ANY OF THE PRINTING SERVICES SUGGESTED.