A few years ago I was having a drink with an American friend who plays in a band big enough to headline festivals. He was agonising over whether they should perform in Israel and asked my opinion.

It was interesting timing. I had just returned from a reporting trip to Gaza, during which I had witnessed the brutality of Israeli troops as they killed and maimed protesters. Yet I had also seen how leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad stoked the fury of despairing young people, then I met in secret with a dissident brave enough to confront their despotic and corrupt rule on this tormented strip of land. And before leaving, I had bumped into a mutual friend at the airport – a well-known DJ – who was returning home after playing a show in Tel Aviv.

My response was simple. If musicians were content to play in China despite its genocidal atrocities against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, in Saudi Arabia given its abusive treatment of women, or in Russia after its criminal theft of Crimea, then they should feel comfortable enough playing in a place that – for all its sins -– at least permitted free speech and the opportunity to oust its awful government. Or as the manager of a celebrated African artist once said to me, highlighting the moral complexities inherent in globalisation, why would musicians not play there if they eat Israeli avocados, dates and oranges being grown on........

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