Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress yesterday, speaking about the Israeli-Hamas war, in which over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military offensives.
Thousands of protestors congregated outside the Capitol and across Washington, D.C., including musician Dave Matthews, who spoke with Al Jazeera about his opposition to Netanyahu.
Now, everyone is stanning Matthews—even if some weren’t fans of him before.
Quds News Network, a Palestinian news network, shared a clip of Matthews’ interview.
“It’s disgusting to show support for someone that doesn’t deserve our support,” Matthews said. “I’m ashamed that my tax dollars are going to the brutalizing of an entire people.”
Matthews also said Netanyahu shouldn’t be welcomed “into the so-called sacred halls of our government.”
“This has been an ongoing struggle for people that just want to have dignity and be able to live independent lives and dream of a better future,” Matthews said. “And this man is the pinnacle of the obstacle toward that freedom.”
Regardless of their prior feelings about Matthews, many X users said they’re fans of him now.
“I take back every mean thing I ever said about the Dave Matthews Band back in the 1990s,” one person tweeted.
“I’m sorry I hid in the bathroom at Joe Robbie stadium to get away from your music when you opened for The Rolling Stones in 1999 Dave Matthews,” another person said. “I apologize.”
“Time to revisit Dave Matthews!” someone else tweeted.
One X user even created a “Dave Matthews Apology Form” that offers options for why someone hated on his music including “I didn’t realize he was a lifelong anti-apartheid activist who renounced his South African citizenship rather than serve in the military” and “the media convinced me the poop bus thing was his fault.”
Matthews was born in South Africa and drafted into the country’s compulsory military service. As he was opposed to the regime, he moved back to the U.S., where his family had lived when he was a kid.
In 2003, his band’s tour bus dropped 800 pounds of waste off of a Chicago bridge onto passengers who were on an architecture tour in the city’s river. Matthews’ tour manager had to pay a fine, serve probation, and do community service.
The apology form concludes with “I will hereby respect Dave Matthews and I will never make my need to seem cool his problem.”
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