Berlin, ALRAY - Islam Chipsy Band declared its withdrawal from taking part at the Pop Kulture Music Festival scheduled to be held this month in Berlin.

“We, Islam Chipsy Band announce our withdrawal from Pop Kulture Festival which is going to be held this month in Berlin, because of the participation of the Israeli Embassy as one of the sponsors of the festival. And we make it clear that we were not aware of this until today,” the band declared in a written statement on its Facebook account.

“We make it clear that through our music, we seek to resist violence, persecution and discrimination of any kind against anyone,” The band added.

In turn, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement praised the position of the Egyptian Islam Chipsy Band’s withdrawal from the Festival, a day after declaring the Syrian Mazaj Band its withdrawal from the festival for the same reason.

The BDS movement indicated in a press release that by withdrawing the Islam Chipsy Band, the number of Arab artists and bands withdrawn from the festival was up to 3 within one day, despite of the deliberate delay to mention the participation of the Israeli Embassy as one of the sponsors of the festival.

The BDS movement said that the Egyptian Islam Chipsy Band’s withdrawal from the festival is adding to the chain success the movement achieved through boycotting Israel, calling upon artists and bands participating at the festival to declare their immediate withdrawal from it.