Singer Achinoam Nini (known as Noa outside Israel) and her talented musical partner Gil Dor, both veteran peace activists, were on a tour of Australia this week. Rabbi Gersh Lazarow of Temple Beth Israel, which hosted them in Melbourne, bravely pushed back against right-wing activists who demanded a boycott of the two leftists. According to the rabbi, “only” two Jewish communities in Melbourne removed their sponsorship of Noa’s tour in the wake of the controversy. Some of the wealthy members of the community withdrew their support. Not all. The musical-political event that took place in Sydney, sponsored by the New Israel Fund, was sold out. The hall has 250 seats.

But then came the phone call from Israel with the message that the city of Lod canceled Noa’s planned performance at the “bringing Lod residents together” event next month, “in light of due sensitivity, the mayor prefers to avoid unnecessary tensions and emotions that could cause damage and result in the opposite reaction of pulling apart population groups in Lod.” Lod joined a growing list of Israeli and Jewish communities that have rejected an Israeli artist who is known around the world. Cancellations are usually said to be due to “technical reasons” or “security reasons.”

Millions of copies of Noa’s more than 12 albums have been sold around the world. She has performed for the pope, at the White House and at the economic forum at Davos; she was appointed goodwill ambassador on behalf of Israel to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; she holds a knighthood from the government of Italy. But the Israeli right will not forgive her for her refusal to share a prize from the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel with singer Ariel Zilber at the beginning of 2014. The reason for Noa's decision was that Zilber expressed understanding for the motives of Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Two years later, she resigned from the Israeli Union of Performing Artists in protest of its decision to bestow Zilber a prize for lifetime achievement. In a Facebook post, Noa explained that she can’t be a member of an organization that gives a prize to a singer who disseminates hatred of Arabs and leftists, and who has not backed down from its support for the racist Rabbi Meir Kahane and mass killer Baruch Goldstein.

“I’m in good company,” Noa answered with a smile a question posed by an audience member at the Sydney appearance. “The president of Israel — Reuven Rivlin, a Likud man — is also considered a traitor by the same people, because of his refusal to pardon soldier Elor Azariah, who shot a wounded terrorist to death.” An hour earlier, in a conversation with Al-Monitor, Noa said with an undisguised tone of sadness that she has paid a heavy economic price for her decision to use her musical talent in the fight for a just peace. She reached her decision after Rabin’s assassination in 1995 at the end of the peace rally where she appeared alongside other Israeli artists. She doesn't perform in settlements, but she hasn’t given up on a dialogue with those settlers who are willing to host her in their homes — “I differentiate between entertaining and talking.”