Music streaming platform Spotify has removed content that incites “hatred and violence against Jews and Israel” after pressure from a pro-Israel advocacy group.
Songs taken off the service include “Arabic Katyusha,” “The Death of Israel” and “Udrub Udrub Tel Abib,” which incites violence against Jews using antisemitic lyrics, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The song”s hateful languages includes the lyrics: “Strike a blow at Tel Aviv and frighten the Zionists. The more you build it the more we will destroy it”, “All we want is to strike Tel Aviv”, “Oh you settler, with your sidelocks, in your shelter you cower with fear”, “Strike, oh Qassam missile, do not let the Zionists sleep. Even if they beg for mercy – be sure not to show Tel Aviv any mercy”, and “Oh Fajr missile, explode in the Knesset and the army base.”
The successful campaign to convince the streaming platform to remove the content was organized by the We Believe In Israel (WBII) Jewish advocacy organization.
The removed content “incites and promotes hatred, violence, and disinformation against Jews and Israelis.”
WBII”s campaign called for Spotify to take down “dozens of instances of problematic material,” including Lowkey”s “Long Live Palestine – Part 2 rap,” which includes references to having “globalized the intifada” and claims to have “studied the Torah and learnt by their own admission Israel”s actions are not kosher in their own religion.”
“Spotify has a responsibility to uphold its platform rules which quite clearly state that content promoting, threatening, or inciting violence is unacceptable,” WBII”s director, Luke Akehurst, told the Jewish News during the campaign, which included a petition.

Akehurst applauded the company”s move to ban the material.
“It”s good news that Spotify have finally listened to public disgust about hosting clearly antisemitic content which contravenes their own content policies, including directly inciting violence against Israelis,” he told the Chronicle.
Board of Deputies Vice President Amanda Bowman urged Spotify to continue to apply the same standards in the future.
“We are pleased that Spotify have acted to remove certain material that clearly breached their own rules regarding hateful messaging. We hope that they will continue to apply these rules to works by other artists that similarly contravene their guidelines.”