PORTLAND, Maine — Two dozen city police officers stood in a line outside the State Theater on Congress Street Wednesday night with plastic handcuffs, Tasers, night sticks and pepper ball guns as protesters on the other side of the road chanted pro-Palestinian slogans through bullhorns.
The demonstrators wanted the venue to call off the night’s concert featuring pro-Israel singer Matisyahu.
However, the show went on as scheduled, the protest remained peaceful and the police kept their crowd-control equipment holstered and undeployed.
The protest was organized by Maine Jews for Palestine, a loose-knit organization formed last fall when the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. It organized a letter-writing campaign this month to try and get Matisyahu’s concert canceled.
The popular, Jewish, reggae-flavored musician has made no secret of his support for Israel’s armed forces during the current conflict, recently performing near the front lines. In January, Matisyahu posted a video to Instagram showing him singing for the Israeli Defense Force’s Golani Brigade, first formed in 1948.
“Good luck to my boys headed north,” Matisyahu posted. “It was an honor to breathe the same air as you tonight.”
A few weeks later, the Grammy-nominated musician told Newsweek magazine, “I would like to see any terrorist, Hamas, or person who believes Israel has no right to exist or the Jews have no right to it, I would like Israel [to] destroy those people.”
Leo Hilton, a spokesperson for Maine Jews for Palestine, thinks that kind of rhetoric is unacceptable.
“There’s no place in Portland for someone like him providing material and moral support for an army currently commiting genocide,” Hilton said.
Though Hilton’s organization failed to get the show called off, similar recent protests were successful in Arizona, New Mexico and Illinois.
“We will not be silenced or stopped,” Matisyahu posted on X after one such canceled show. “If a venue has a staff who’s afraid to stand up to these fools I will find a venue who supports me and my beautiful fans.”
First in line at the State Theater, behind the line of officers Wednesday night, waiting for the doors to open, was Enta native Liz Switzer, who said neither the protestors, nor Matisyahu’s political stance, bothered her.
“I feel safe here,” Switzer said. “Besides, Matisyahu’s message is all about peace and love.”
On the other side of the street, stood Kevin Lee, a union stagehand who would normally be working the show inside. Lee decided not to show up for the gig in protest and urged his fellow union comrades to do the same. At least two others joined him.
“Matisyahu was just over there raising the spirits of an army that bombs hospitals,” Lee said. “I was very clear with my boss as to why I’m not there.”
Lee said turning down the work meant forgoing a lucrative gig.
“This is bigger than a paycheck,” he said.
