Episode 8: Zionist influence on music industry

First aired on 19 March 2022

The Universal Music Group is the world's largest music company. The CEO Lucien Grainge, a supporter of the Friends of the Israeli Offence Forces, heads a company with significant power.

His wife Caroline Grainge funds the Zionist Federation and the Conservative Party. Billionaire Haim Saban also has his own subsidiary through Universal and is known to be one of the largest donors to the Friends of The IOF in the organization's history. The infamous Lord Levy also worked as a financial consultant to Universal at the same time as fundraising for former Israeli Prime Minister and close friend Ehud Barak.

However, the most important Israel lobbyist to emerge out of Universal Music Group is probably David Renzer, former CEO of Universal Publishing. Renzer along with other well-placed figures in the music & film industry started an organization by the name Creative Community for Peace. The name sounds innocent enough, but examining the legal documents on its founding we see that it was part of one entity called Israel Emergency Alliance with a group called StandWithUs. StandWithUs works closely with the Israeli Foreign Ministry of Affairs and has in recent years obtained funding directly from the Israeli Prime Minister's office.

You can see why Creative Community of Peace would use the word peace to obfuscate its intentions. As StandWithUs has said, "Always include the word “peace” in your answer … If the Israeli side says “peace” more times than the Palestinian side says “peace,” we will win the PR war."

Despite their best efforts, the CCFP has not been able to live down its relationship with StandWithUs, the founder claiming there is no "day-to-day relationship" with it. However, that is hard to believe when they were legally the same entity, shared the same office address and board members, and the founder of Dave Renzer is in fact married to Esther Renzer, the founder and president of StandWithUs.

CCFP takes credit for lobbying stars like Alicia Keys and Macey Gray to perform in Israel following BDS campaigns asking to pull out in solidarity with the Palestinians. These operations included the mobilization of Israeli government figures. One of the organization's ambassadors is Ziggy Marley son of the late great political firebrand Bob Marley.