Police probe threats against singer

JERUSALEM, June 24 (JTA) — Israeli police plan to question an extreme right-wing activist on suspicion of threatening Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor. O’Connor canceled her scheduled appearance at a concert Saturday night in Jerusalem after receiving death threats. The concert was sponsored by Israeli and Palestinian women’s groups. No one claimed responsibility for the threats. However, Itamar Ben-Gvir said in an Israel Radio interview that he “understood” those who sent the threats. While not claiming to have issued the threats, Ben-Gvir said that he and his supporters had succeeded in getting the concert called off. He referred to O’Connor as a “singer who preaches and calls for the division of Jerusalem and who spreads gentile culture,” adding that she “has no place in Israel.” Ben-Gvir is affiliated with an offshoot of the outlawed Kach movement, which is militantly anti-Arab. After the interview, O’Connor sent an open letter to Ben-Gvir. “God does not reward those who bring terror to the children of the world,” she wrote. “So you have succeeded in nothing but your soul’s failure.”