Bowie music executive condemns campaign to block Israelis from streaming music

Now, the veteran executive responsible for propelling music acts such as Spandau Ballet, UB40 and Madness to stardom had labelled the campaign "misguided and horrendous".

Neil Ferris, whose career in the industry spans decades and who has worked with artists including Bowie, the Stones and Erasure, has spoken out against the imitative.

"Stopping people playing music in Israel is basically saying you want to stop the Jews having music because of the situation in Gaza,” he said.

Ferris, who ran his own music company Brilliant! and served as a managing director for the label EMI before retiring, continued: "It is very unfair on all the people who live in Israel who want to download music. I think it is absolutely staggering that they are trying to stop people who want to listen to music from downloading it.

Veteran music executive Neil Ferris[Missing Credit]

He also claimed that many musicians who have voiced anti-Israel sentiment are misinformed and are “listening to the wrong information – the Hamas propaganda."

He said: "Looking at artists who are standing up there, saying 'free Palestine' – they don’t know what on Earth they are talking about. They have not got a clue... They are following like sheep."

Ferris also voiced his suspicions that some of the artists who have signed up to the campaign and who have expressed animosity toward Israel may be doing so at least partly for commercial reasons.

"I think they believe for some bizarre reason that this connects them with their fanbase,” he said.

And, he believes, many of the artists who sign up to geo-block Israelis are simply “jumping on the bandwagon”.

He added: "It is very wrong to stop people in Israel, music lovers, having music because of what they believe is going on with the government and the IDF. I find that just appalling."