DISTURBED frontman David Draiman sang the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah", during the band's concert in the country Tuesday night (July 2) at Rishon Lezion's Live Park. According to The Jerusalem Post, the 46-year-old singer, who is of Jewish heritage, spoke to the crowd in Hebrew throughout the show and, at one point, donned a t-shirt with an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) insignia and proclaimed, "This is for all the IDF soldiers." Israeli flags were also flashed on the screen throughout the performance. Although David has visited the country many times, this was the first DISTURBED concert in the Jewish state. Both of Draiman's maternal grandparents were survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while many others on his mother's side were wiped out by the Nazis. The DISTURBED song "Never Again", from 2010's "Asylum" album, was written about the Holocaust and calls out people who deny it. The United States Holocaust Museum has featured Draiman in its "Voices On Anti-Semitism" podcasts. In recent months, Draiman has been speaking out against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Arab citizens equal rights and recognize the right of return to Palestinian refugees. Earlier in the week, Draiman spoke to KAN radio, where he called BDS advocates "idiots" and "Nazis in suits." Draiman has in the past battled with Twitter trolls who have harassed him about his sometimes-controversial views regarding Israel and its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Draiman has had frequent heated exchanges with followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians.
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