IDF Service Festival Ban: Music Event Bars Israeli Veterans

An Irish music and wellness festival announced barred current and former Israel Defense Forces soldiers from attending, following an online campaign targeting the planned attendance of a former Israeli soldier at this year's event.

Rewild Festival, a one-day event held annually in a forest setting near the Gap of Dunloe in County Kerry, issued the new policy after campaigners criticized organizers over the expected attendance of Yonatan Prigozin, who Irish outlet Aontacht Media reported had previously served in the IDF. In a statement posted to social media, organizers said they had learned that a former member of what they called "the Israeli Occupation Forces" was planning to attend as a paying guest, and confirmed that current or former IDF members would no longer be welcome or permitted to participate in the festival.

Since Israel maintains compulsory military service for most Jewish citizens, the policy could effectively bar any Israeli who completed mandatory national service, regardless of individual conduct or views.

According to Aontacht Media, one festival organizer initially defended Prigozin's attendance in a message to a group chat, writing that he was welcome, while another told a concerned attendee that anyone uncomfortable with his presence was free not to attend. The outlet reported that a separate organizer later told campaigners in a voice message that Prigozin was a friend of the festival's main organizer and that raising concerns about his attendance was not their place. The policy reversal followed pressure from an activist account urging artists and vendors to withdraw unless organizers revoked the attendee's access, and Aontacht Media reported that several artists subsequently pulled out of the event.

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said the festival's claim to be a space where everyone can come together apparently excludes any Israeli who has performed obligatory national service, calling the policy xenophobia dressed up as progressive politics given that conscription is compulsory in Israel. Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder said organizers' use of the term "IOF" reveals a great deal about their underlying view of Israel.

Jewish News reported it had contacted both Rewild Festival and Prigozin for comment.