Roi Perez and the Normalization of Zionism in Our Community

Last week, when an op-ed on Substack, circulated by Ravers for Palestine, called for the London nightclub FOLD to cancel Roi Perez’s “Origins: All Night Long” party, in response to Roi’s Zionism and his whitewashing of Israeli apartheid, Origins canceled Roi’s show.

In response, Roi issued a statement on Instagram, after deleting a post from his Boiler Room set calling pro-Palestine commenters “bigots.” The new statement reads, “I oppose the Israeli regime and its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. I support the cultural boycott of Israel as part of the broader movement for Palestinian liberation, and I reject all forms of nationalism, including Zionism.”

The statement goes on, “Questioning your surroundings isn’t something you do overnight.” We sympathize. Breaking out of the Zionist propaganda machine is hard. But Roi is clearly not all the way there. To be certain, we welcome genuine declarations of solidarity, no matter how late they come. But we find some of the claims in Roi’s full statement—which implicitly blames the organizations that have pressured him to this conclusion—to be misleading in a number of ways.

“Growing up under occupation…”

You did not grow up under occupation. You were a born settler colonialist in occupied Palestine. This statement advances a false symmetry between oppressed and oppressor, which contributes to the normalization of the genocide.

Furthermore, you served over seven years in the IDF Navy, five more years than the minimum two years and eight months required for compulsory military service. During those years, the IDF’s Navy blocked the Freedom Flotilla in 2010 and executed activists on board. In 2008-2009, you served during Operation Cast Lead, where Navy missile ships shelled Gaza from offshore, killing 1400 Palestinians.

“I support the cultural boycott of Israel as part of the broader movement for Palestinian liberation”

What does this support mean when your boyfriend Yonti is currently an owner of the Phi Garden nightclub in Tel Aviv?

“I no longer play in Israel; since October 2023 the only show I played there was our non-profit fundraiser.”

No, you played twice. The first was Gazoz, in February 2024, and the second was LAUNDRETTE, in April 2024. Those two fundraisers should never have happened on Israeli soil. The promotion for the Gazoz and Laundrette shows only reserve money for an Israeli-led organization for “Jewish-Arab solidarity.” This is better than nothing, but Palestinian-led voices or organizations are still not getting any proceeds.

“Publicly circulating the names of artists and clubs with the intention to isolate them doesn’t advance the movement for Palestinian liberation”

This is actually how boycotts work. The fact that you and your gigs are personally impacted by it is inconsequential. You own property in Berlin and Lisbon. You have investments in real estate and restaurants around the world. You don’t need this gig. No one’s isolating you.

This statement still does not acknowledge or apologize for the harm against Palestinians committed during your IDF service, your cultural normalization of the Israeli occupation, and your continued ties to Phi Garden. Palestinians need their rights and their reality affirmed. True accountability or repentance isn’t just saying what you’re doing correctly now, but naming what you did wrong and why you know it’s wrong. Instead, the statement—abrupt, defensive, bitter—does not address the specific points we outlined, nor is it accompanied by pledges for any restorative work.

According to the Palestinian-authored PACBI guidelines for anti-normalization, any organization must bring Palestinians and Israelis together under two conditions:

The Israeli side publicly recognizes the UN-affirmed inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, which are set out in the 2005 BDS Call, and
The joint activity constitutes a form of co-resistance against the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.

In the past, LAUNDRETTE has booked Palestinian DJs like Samira, meeting the second condition. After Roi’s statement of just a few days ago, LAUNDRETTE now meets the first condition, even if it hasn't historically. We count this as a win.

We are not calling for the end of Roi’s career. We have watched his rise since we saw his first US show at Wrecked in 2016, and are confident his career will survive this just fine. We encourage him to continue spreading the message to his followers—not just when it aligns his career ambitions with political and cultural clout—that correcting one’s past wrongs is never too late, you may lose friends but you will bring in new ones. It’s not the end of the world, but the creation of a new one.

Politics is a numbers game, which means our movement is not in a place to reject anyone who wishes to join our ranks. It’s important to welcome imperfect allies. Solidarity moves with a committed center, and radiates outward with various levels of commitment. According to PACBI guidelines for the international cultural boycott of Israel, we choose to focus our efforts against institutions, not individuals. This is what distinguishes a boycott from cancel culture, which would take professional frustration as our battlefield, legitimizing capitalism by using its weapons as our main line of attack. We have seen, multiple times, that as the dance music community’s political influence wanes, the more it will try to overcorrect by exerting control on its own. This is true of the left at large.

How can we continue to combat normalization and resist carceral impulses in our movement? What would it look like to give this person a chance to understand how he can do more, also without compromising on our values? (This might still look like calling for cancelling his shows—like Basement’s—especially if Palestinians are the ones saying it.)

But to focus solely on the Roi issue would be to fundamentally mistake the levers of power in the fight for Palestinian liberation. Let’s use this as a call to step outside the club and engage with this more broadly; remember, we have ports to blockade, mutual aid to practice, day jobs to influence, neighbors to talk to. And, yes, this is just nightlife, but we create the world we want to live in with every choice we make: What we do is who we are. Do we want to be in spaces that are as uncompromising as possible on liberation, or not? We have to choose and make that reality, not wait for powers that be to do that.