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Police Probe Threats Against Singer

June 26, 1997
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Israeli police plan to question an extreme right- wing activist on suspicion of threatening Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor.

O’Connor canceled her scheduled appearance at a concert Saturday night in Jerusalem after receiving death threats. The concert was sponsored by Israeli and Palestinian women’s groups.

No one claimed responsibility for the threats.

However, Itamar Ben-Gvir said in an Israel Radio interview that he “understood” those who sent the threats.

While not claiming to have issued the threats, Ben-Gvir said that he and his supporters had succeeded in getting the concert called off.

He referred to O’Connor as a “singer who preaches and calls for the division of Jerusalem and who spreads gentile culture,” adding that she “has no place in Israel.”

Ben-Gvir is affiliated with an offshoot of the outlawed Kach movement, which is militantly anti-Arab.

After the interview, O’Connor sent an open letter to Ben-Gvir.

“God does not reward those who bring terror to the children of the world,” she wrote. “So you have succeeded in nothing but your soul’s failure.”

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