Sorry to break it to you guys, but Bad Gal RiRi didn’t actually say “Palestine” at her recent concert in Israel.
Here’s the scoop:
Ignoring the Palestine BDS movement’s cultural boycott, which campaigns for artists and figures NOT to make public appearances in Israel, Rihanna performed in front of a packed Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv last week as part of her Diamonds World Tour.
She was late, people were pissed, some accused her of lip-synching, but the most scandalous claim was that she subbed “All I see is Palestine” with “All I see is dollar signs” while performing her song “Pour It Up”. And she never once mentioned “Israel” – just “Tel Aviv”, which to entertainment reporter Amy Klein meant… something.
Klein, who works for left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, reported the supposed lyrical change and the news went viral. Everybody picked it up.
Problem is, none of the other 49,999 people in attendance heard “Palestine”. People started asking questions, including other reporters, calling Haaretz out and eventually, a cell phone video surfaced.
As you can see at around the 6-minute mark, she said “dollar signs”. Haaretz retracted its claim and everybody went back to talking about how she got kicked out of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
WE SAID THIS: All we see is signs/All we see is everybody jumping on the “controversy” bandwagon.