Dua Lipa criticises agent over Israel stance but brands sacking report 'false'
British popstar Dua Lipa has criticised music executives who campaigned against pro-Palestinian Irish rap group Kneecap but condemned a Mail on Sunday report that she sacked her agent over his pro-Israel stance.
The Mail on Sunday reported that the singer had "dumped" David Levy, who works for the global talent agency William Morris Endeavour (WME), after discovering that he had been part of an effort to cancel Kneecap's performance at Glastonbury festival.
On Wednesday, Lipa posted on Instagram that the story was "completely false". "I do not condone the actions of David Levy or other music executives toward an artist speaking their truth," she wrote.
"I also cannot ignore how this has been handled in the press. Not only was the story completely false but the language used by the Daily Mail has been deliberately inflammatory, crafted purely for clickbait, clearly designed to fuel online division," she continued.
"It is always Free Palestine but exploiting a global tragedy in order to see newspapers is something I find deeply troubling."
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Music industry sources told Middle East Eye on Monday that the singer had quietly parted ways with him, but not with his employer, WME.
The agency did not respond to MEE's requests for clarification but later released a statement saying that Levy had stopped working with Dua Lipa in 2019.
Levy was the first signatory to an email sent to Glastonbury organisers, including Emily Eavis, accusing Kneecap of expressing support for "two banned terrorist organisations", Hamas and Hezbollah, at Coachella festival in April.
"Whilst we all support free speech, we cannot accept it when it drifts into whipping up hateful rhetoric that is essentially denying Israel's right to exist," the email read.
Lipa, the daughter of Kosovan Albanian parents, is a vocal supporter of Palestinian liberation. "The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza," she posted on Instagram in May 2024.
In May this year, she was among hundreds of artists to call on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to end UK arms sales to Israel.
A music industry source told Middle East Eye that Levy, who was also Massive Attack's agent before the pro-Palestine Bristol group parted ways with him, "was the main person leading the charge to get Kneecap cancelled at Glastonbury".
The email Levy and others sent to the festival's organisers was intended to be confidential but was leaked by a Glastonbury employee, the source said. Another signatory to the email "had to step back at his record label and lost a couple of deals with new artists", who peceived him to be staunchly pro-Israel.
"All these people signed it thinking it was going to stay anonymous," the source said.
Levy also signed a letter entitled "Israel Under Attack", on 12 October 2023, five days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, calling on the "entertainment community to speak out forcefully against Hamas" and to "support Israel".
One British Jewish entertainment industry worker told MEE that defending Israel was becoming an increasingly marginal position among his colleagues.
"There are still a few people who can't seem to accept that Israel has completely lost the plot," they said. "They're working with Dua Lipa but pretty much the only place you'll find people aligned with them are at Jewish Chronicle fundraisers and Tory shindigs."
Over 65,000 people have been killed by Israel in the course of its genocide in Gaza.
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