of Montreal pull out of Israel's Meteor Festival

The cancellation comes after Lana Del Rey postponed her performance, alongside other musicians Shlohmo, Leon Vynehall, Volvox, DJ Python, and Mall Grab.

The indie-pop group announced their cancellation on Instagram, stating, "After exhausting all of the different possible ways of justifying playing an Israeli party festival, while the political and military leaders of the country continue their murderous and brutal policies against the Palestinian people, we came to the realization that there is no actual appropriate move other than to cancel the show."

They add, "This is in no way an indictment of the Israeli people in general. We simply cannot turn a blind eye to this crisis. To ignore the call to stand up in support of an oppressed group of humans is one of the worst things one can do. I want to extend a sincere apology to our Israeli fans for canceling the show."

View this post on Instagram

After deep consideration, we have decided to cancel our appearance at the @meteorfestival After exhausting all of the different possible ways of justifying playing an Israeli party festival, while the political and military leaders of the country continue their murderous and brutal policies against the Palestinian people, we came to the realization that there is no actual appropriate move other than to cancel the show. Now is not the time for escapism and celebrations. Now is the time for activism and protests against Israeli apartheid, Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the human rights atrocities being carried out everyday in Gaza by Israeli forces. We have so much love for the peace loving Israeli people and an equal amount of love for the peace loving Palestinians. This is in no way an indictment of the Israeli people in general. We simply cannot turn a blind eye to this crisis. To ignore the call to stand up in support of an oppressed group of humans is one of the worst things one can do. I want to extend a sincere apology to our Israeli fans for canceling the show. Being a citizen of the USA I understand full well how much it sucks to be treated like a purveyor of evil simply because of where one was born. I hope I didn’t come off too sanctimoniously in this post. We would love to come back to Israel to perform again when the time is right

A post shared by of Montreal (@of_montreal) on Sep 4, 2018 at 4:11pm PDT

Schlomo also announced his cancellation last weekend through Twitter, stating, "I had said no to playing there for years and the only reason I could find to say yes was if I were to donate my fee to Gaza relief. But after much dialogue I found it to be a more important statement to say no all together than to donate. I hope you can understand this decision."

I had said no to playing there for years and the only reason I could find to say yes was if I were to donate my fee to Gaza relief.
But after much dialogue I found it to be a more important statement to say no all together than to donate.
I hope you can understand this decision

— shlohmo (@shlohmo) September 1, 2018

I know that just as in America there is a huge population of Israelis who protest the state policies + support Palestinians.
Those are the ppl I hoped to play for, but the more I dwell on the issue the more I can't justify going. I urge others to research the issue. Luv yall <3

— shlohmo (@shlohmo) September 1, 2018