The rock musician Elvis Costello has canceled a pair of upcoming concerts in Israel in response to boycott calls from Palestinian solidarity activists. In a statement, Costello said, “I must believe that the audience…would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security…There are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.” Costello”s announcement comes weeks after the soul musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron canceled a concert in Israel in response to boycott calls.