Elia Cohen and Ziv Avod against the Boom Festival: "Israelis who buy a ticket are funding the people who murdered my friends"

Hostage survivor Elia Cohen and his wife, Nova survivor Ziv Avod, are attacking the BOOM trance festival, one of the most popular festivals among the Israeli public. Since the outbreak of the war, the festival has sharply criticized Israel and supported humanitarian activity in Gaza, which is perceived as a betrayal by many Israelis. Now, as ticket sales for the festival have opened and many Israelis are preparing to fly, Avod, Cohen, and many others are attacking the Israeli audience that chooses to go to BOOM.

"There is something that many people don't understand, but I will explain," Cohen began. "In the Gaza Strip, there is a terrorist organization that controls everything. Yes, even the humanitarian aid that everyone is talking about, the first to lay their hands on the trucks is Hamas. After the terrorists who held me eat and drink properly, they sell the packages outside to continue funding the organization and to survive. For me, a person who doesn't know how to control their FOMO and still chooses to buy a ticket to the Boom Festival after they wrote that they would transfer funds to support humanitarian aid, every such person supports and feeds the people who abused me for a year and a half, murdered my friends, raped my female friends, and mutilated my neighbors' children."

"These people are not doing us a favor with their festival, and if after all the years we funded them and sent them artists, this is their way of saying thank you, we should boycott them and stop being so pathetic. You can't spit on us all the time and we will say it's raining!" Cohen continued. "I ask you, if you saw this post and you still have the intention to go to the festival, please cancel our friendship so I don't have to be disappointed in you later. There are things that have no forgiveness!"

The anger in Israel stems largely from the feeling that the festival, which for years was a natural home for many Israelis, chose a side in the conflict and, in their view, ignored the Israeli trauma. The criticism is even sharper following additional statements by BOOM staff and pro-Palestinian activity identified with some of the staff members. On the other hand, the festival emphasizes that they are not boycotting Israelis as an audience, continue to allow them to arrive, and even host Israeli artists, claiming that their criticism is directed at the policy of the Israeli government and not at Israelis or Jews. This gap between the official message and the way it is received in Israel is exactly what turned BOOM from one of the most beloved festivals for the Israeli audience into one of the most controversial.

Ziv Avod, the wife of Elia Cohen, who survived the "death shelter," also attacks the festival and those who decide to buy a ticket. "The Boom Festival is advertising its ticket sales for October 6, just one day before the date when all of our lives changed. I'm not saying it's on purpose, of course, just saying and asking not to forget this date. On the official website of the festival, it is explicitly written that part of the money from ticket sales is intended for aid to the community and a direct donation to Gaza," Avod wrote, and continued: "Every Israeli who buys a ticket to this festival, will arrive there and spend money there, needs to know where part of his money is going. In my eyes, he becomes a partner in funding that could enable the next murder of his friends."

In addition to the objections from Nova survivors, Roi Bosi, an entrepreneur in the cannabis field, also joined the discussion, announcing that any Israeli DJ who cancels their participation in the upcoming BOOM festival will receive from him the full amount they were expected to receive from the festival. "Not part. Not a symbolic compensation. All the money," Bosi declared on his Facebook page. "You present a contract, cancel the performance, and I pay. From now on, no one can hide behind the sentence 'I already signed' or 'this is my livelihood.' I have solved the money issue for you."