An R&B singer who said, “F— Israel” has been disinvited from performing at Cornell University’s end-of-semester concert following outcry from Jewish students.
After a student board announced on April 10 that the singer, Kehlani, would headline the school’s annual “Slope Day” concert, the student group Cornellians for Israel called on the school to rescind the pick. Initially, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff told students that it was “too late” to secure another performer and that the school had altered her contract to mitigate any political displays.
But in an email to the Cornell community Wednesday morning, Kotlikoff announced that Kehlani’s performance had been canceled.
“In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt, and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos, and on social media,” Kotlikoff, who is Jewish, wrote in an email. “While any artist has the right in our country to express hateful views, Slope Day is about uniting our community, not dividing it.”
An alternative lineup for the event has not been announced, but Kotlikoff said that the school would “revise the process for researching and selecting performers” moving forward.
Kehlani released a music video last June that flashes the message “Long Live the Intifada,” a reference to two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the latter of which killed an estimated 1,000 people. The previous month, in a video on X, she condemned other artists for staying silent on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying, “It’s f— Israel, it’s f— Zionism, and it’s also f— a lot of y’all too.”
The controversy surrounding the artist’s upcoming performance comes as Cornell is poised to lose $1 billion in federal funding from the Trump administration, ostensibly over its handling of campus antisemitism.
The school has since filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy over proposed funding cuts. Kotlikoff said at a student assembly meeting last week that the school had not yet received “formal notification” of the funding freeze, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
The student paper reported that the potential funding loss generated confusion in the private Cornell University Parents Group page on Facebook. One user wrote, “Given the threatened loss of $1 billion for anti-[Semitism], who at Cornell thought it would be a good idea to hire Kehlani for Slope Day?”
In an Instagram post, Cornellians for Israel had called on the school to refund the $384 student activity fee, which partially funds the Slope Day performance, or choose a different performer.
“While we respect the right to free speech and expression, choosing a singer with Kehlani’s record for a school-wide, annual event meant to build and celebrate community effectively communicated that Israeli, Jewish, and Zionist students are not a welcome part of that community,” the post read.
Following Kotlikoff’s announcement, the group updated the caption of a photo on their Instagram to say, “Jewish students have made our voices heard.”
In between the announcement of Kehlani and the cancellation, Kotlikoff attended Shabbat dinner and spoke with Jewish students, according to Menachem Rosensaft, a Jewish law professor at Cornell. Kotlikoff had said he planned to do so earlier in the month, as he sought to head off growing pressure from the Trump administration by emphasizing how inviting the campus was for Jewish students.
“I’m sure he was under a substantial amount of pressure from other parts of his constituency not to disinvite her, not to basically tell the student group that chose her ‘no,’ and, in taking the extra week, 10 days to deliberate and to consider, I think it makes him the stronger personality because it is now clear to everyone that he did not act in haste,” Rosensaft said in an interview Wednesday. “There was a real danger that the event would be hijacked into confrontation and acrimony, if not violence, and I think understanding that and understanding that in this instance the provocation was on the part of those who invited her.”
Kotlikoff acknowledged that the choice to disinvite Kehlani could spark opposition from other students but that it was meant to make the event more inclusive.
“I understand that my decision will be celebrated by some and criticized by others. I believe it is the right thing to do and the decision I must make to ensure community and safety at this high-profile event that reaches the entire campus,” wrote Kotlikoff. “Cornell is an institution where ‘any person can find instruction in any study,’ and where every person should feel included at the signature social event of the year.”
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