Anta Gathering & Company: Music, freedom, love and genocide~ 25 min

By Francisco Ulrike [originally published on August 30th]

Portugal, one of the dream destinations for israeli settlers fleeing occupied Palestine, is also a paradise where genocidal maniacs come to zionist-friendly festivals to purge their sins to the sound of electronic music.

The Anta Gathering, one of these festivals, was set to begin on Thursday near Manhouce, in the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, in the Viseu district. But something ruined their plans – a complaint by the Committee for Solidarity with Palestine (CSP), published on Monday on Instagram, reached 250,000 people and received almost 10,000 likes in just 72 hours.

As the CSP reports, the festival is “a psytrance meeting where organizers, production, landowners, artists and other associated entities are almost exclusively zionist israelis”. One of the organizing brothers, Shahar Pierre Bickel, “is a reservist soldier who returned to israel in October 2023, when israel started the genocide in Gaza, to join the occupation army” and “is a soldier in the “Sayeret Nahal” battalion, a unit of special forces and recognition integrated into the Nahal brigade”.

The buzz that was generated on social networks led to at least three artists canceling their performances, and the city council and the command post of the GNR of São Pedro do Sul being bombarded with calls from outraged people demanding the cancellation of the festival. On Thursday afternoon, Anta Gathering’s organization officially announced its cancellation.

Prior to this, the organisation published a statement responding to the complaint, as did each of the organising brothers – all of whom accuse the CSP of spreading “lies” and “hatred”, distorting the accusations made against them so that they can later deny them.

In a post on social media, Shahar Bickel states: “I was not in Gaza and I did not kill anyone,” while Anta Gathering states that “we are not soldiers” and that “no member of the production team was in Gaza or participated in the killing of human beings.” What’s still unclear is whether they see Palestinians as human beings, as none of the statements mention the words “Palestinians” or “Palestine”.

They also say that “we are not our country, we are not our government”, yet somehow fail to use the moment to condemn the occupation, apartheid, or genocide — instead calling it “war.”

Shahar Pierre Bickel and his service in the IDF

Shahar Bickel denies something he has never been accused of: serving in Gaza. As the CSP states, Shahar “returned to israel in October 2023, when israel began its genocide in Gaza, to enlist in the occupation army.”

In a post dated October 13th 2023, Shahar Bickel announces that, faced with the “most complex decision” of his life, he had chosen to “return and protect my loved ones”.

The fact that he was not in Gaza does not make him any less of a genocidal maniac. Shahar went to “protect his country” in October 2023 and serve in the IDF on the Lebanese front – ensuring that his fellow servicemembers could commit genocide in Gaza without interference.

Would a Nazi who fought on the Belgian front during World War II be less problematic because he did not participate directly in pogroms against Jews in Eastern Europe? Would anyone in their right mind claim that a member of the SS was less of a Nazi because he was not stationed at Auschwitz?

However, Shahar could have served in the occupation forces at the beginning of the genocide and, at some point in the last 22 months, engaged in self-criticism – and criticism of the regime installed in occupied Palestine since 1948, of the 77 years of occupation and martyrdom, and of his position as a settler and soldier. Shahar could have condemned the genocide and the zionist apartheid regime, and become a voice against the narrative that attempts to associate all Jews with the actions of the IDF. But he did not.

Celebrating the Nakba

Just four months ago, in early May, a festival was held in the Naqab Desert in southern occupied Palestine to celebrate “israeli independence” – that is, to celebrate the Nakba. And Shahar promoted it.

In May 2025, in the midst of a campaign to use hunger as a weapon of war, Shahar promoted a celebration of israel’s “independence” day, commemorating the Nakba and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This celebration was organised by the israeli production company Fusion Culture’, which will hold a musical showcase at the ‘Anta Gathering’, featuring five israeli artists from its catalogue.

CSP

The festival, organised by Fusion Culture and promoted by Shahar Bickel, took place between May 1st and 3rd at “Desert Base” in southern Naqab.

In a post on May 6th 2025, Shahar states:

After last weekend at Desert Base, I really understood the magnitude of the responsibility and the size of the role we have taken on – bringing people to a festival that is happening in israel, and with which we don’t have much to do, is very challenging.

But I definitely believe in us, in our vision and our dream, in the energy and the music.

Shahar Pierre Bickel

This festival is the epitome of zionist psychedelic culture: celebrating the zionist regime while enjoying music on land stolen from the Palestinians, without even mentioning the existence of the Palestinians or the ethnic cleansing on which the foundations of the state of israel were laid. To do this is to celebrate the Nakba itself and the erasure of Palestine – a process that has been going on for 77 years and is now unfolding at a breakneck pace.

Perhaps these are the same people who thought it was normal for a ‘peace and love’ festival to be held on October 7th 2023 next to the world’s largest concentration camp.

Génocidaires are victims, BDS is violent

The poor organisers of Anta have already complained to israeli media outlets such as the Times of Israel and Channel 10, claiming that ‘threats were made against the municipality’ and against ‘several of the participating artists’, suggesting that it was these threats that led to the cancellations.

In another statement, Shahar Din and Yotam, producers of the Anta Gathering, accuse the campaign of aiming to ‘prevent the festival from taking place through intimidation and violence.’

The strategy is the usual one – defending accomplices of genocide as harmless victims who only want to “spread peace and love”, while portraying pro-Palestinian organisations and voices as “violent” and “threatening”.

The initial announcement from Anta Gathering reads:

Many forces driven by hatred and ignorance are trying to prevent this event from happening simply because of where we were born.

Following the announcement of the festival’s cancellation, they reinforced this same idea by launching a fundraising campaign entitled ‘Because We Are ISRAELI – When Music is Silenced by Hate’.

As if the problem were where they were born, rather than their actions and positions – or lack thereof.

For all israelis who want to be welcome in Portugal, there is a very simple way: denounce not only the government of the ‘evil Netanyahu,’ but the zionist regime as a whole – the occupation, apartheid and genocide. Become a voice for the liberation of the Palestinian people and the decolonisation of Palestine. Use your influence to press for an end to the Holocaust of our times. Make your family, friends and acquaintances understand that it makes no sense for them to live on stolen land that has been watered with Palestinian blood for decades.

If you are israeli and served in the IDF during the genocide – even if not in Gaza – and do not condemn the israeli occupation forces, you are responsible for their crimes. You’re an accomplice to genocide.

If you proudly claim to be israeli and do not condemn the occupation of Palestine, you are complicit in the actions that the ‘Jewish state’ commits in your name. And it is not the defence of an abstract ‘peace and love’ that will save you.

And by the way: they are so miserable that, in just 48 hours, they have already raised more than €20,000 in their crowdfunding campaign – more than most families in Gaza can raise in crowdfundings in a whole year.

Cancellations and vague responses

Before the festival was cancelled, three artists announced the cancellation of their performances: Yellow Mellow Sound, Soulid, and Renato Oliveira/Til Sunday Pirate.

The announcements by Yellow Mellow Sound and Soulid are rather poor and lacking in substance, with the latter stating that the cancellation was due to ‘the latest news and also the hateful attacks I have received’, without however seeming bothered by the fact that one of the organisers served in the IDF during the ongoing genocide.

Renato Oliveira, on the other hand, published a longer text justifying the cancellation – although without once mentioning the words “Gaza”, “Palestine”, “genocide” or “IDF”. However, in statements to Público, he explained in more detail the reasons that led him to make the decision:

Having only learned of the organisers’ links to the israeli army on Monday, the Portuguese musician and producer asked them for ‘a statement on their political position’. ‘As the response was very vague and there was no concrete statement on this matter, but rather a discourse of victimisation, I realised that it was not possible to continue to be part of the programme,’ he tells PÚBLICO. ‘I felt that my presence could be interpreted as indifference to human suffering,’ he continued. ‘And I believe that music should serve to give voice to life, peace and dignity, not to create ambiguities.’

in “Festival organizado por israelitas com ligações às IDF foi vetado em Portugal”, Público, August 27th 2025

Psychedelic culture and genocide

The statement from the CSP ends with an appeal to the psychedelic community:

The psychedelic culture in Portugal cannot be a safe haven for those who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The problem is that this culture has long been intrinsically linked to the zionist regime. Psychedelic trance, or psytrance, emerged in Goa, India, in the 1980s – and was imported into occupied Palestine by young israelis who travelled in large numbers to Goa after completing their military service in the occupation forces. The zionist regime has since become one of the world’s most important hubs of psychedelic culture, producing some of the biggest names on the psytrance scene, such as Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom and Skazi.

The article ‘Psytrance and Israel,’ written by American ‘cultural journalist’ Katie Bain and published by RedBull Music Academy, provides a good glimpse into the psyche of the israeli psychedelic community. Blain uses expressions such as “radical self-expression”, “spirituality” and “community bonding”, and refers to drugs as “consciousness-expanding substances” – painting the community as mystical, irreverent and peace-loving, while completely ignoring that this culture developed on Palestinian land stolen during the Nakba. It does not once mention the words “Palestine,” “occupation” or “apartheid,” and refers to Palestinians as “Muslims.”

In fact, these parties and the use of psychedelic drugs serve, fundamentally, to allow israelis to escape from their ‘stressful’ reality and their experiences serving in the israeli occupation forces – where they regularly abuse defenceless families, practise target shooting on Palestinian children and blow up residential buildings, only to then complain of post-traumatic stress.

And, as if that weren’t enough, this culture of ‘peace and love’ also excludes Palestinians, who are second-class citizens in the state of israel. As an important figure in israeli psytrance interviewed for the article explains:

“Israel is a special place, but it’s also full of stress,” says Omri Homsy Harari, the founder of one of Israel’s first online psy magazines and a partner at Groove Attack, the promoter behind several of the country’s biggest psy festivals. “We’re always stressed. People need an outlet to find peace and rest in an extreme way.”

“People are running from their reality to these parties, ” (…)

This spirit of inclusion doesn’t apply to the entire Israeli population. While Arabs and other minority groups are involved, non-religious Ashkenazi Jews make up the bulk of the [psychedelic] scene’s organizers and participants. “It’s not like there isn’t room for Muslims,” Harari says, “but it’s a problematic question. I could never give a good answer.”

Katie Bain in “Psytrance and Israel”

But the rottenness of israeli psychedelic culture does not end there. Over the past 23 months, the world has seen settlers organising raves to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, and israeli soldiers dancing to psychedelic trance music inside Palestinian homes in Gaza, while demolishing buildings, or during their breaks from the genocide.

And it’s not as if Zionist psychedelic culture isn’t welcomed with open arms at the world’s most important psytrance festivals – Ozora, Boom and Tomorrowland are consistently packed with israeli DJs (and audiences). Take, for example, this bizarre scene from last year’s Tomorrowland, in which DJ Skazi dedicates his set in Hebrew to the state of israel, the hostages and the IDF soldiers – before an audience filled with israeli flags.

Interesting, isn’t it? For someone who talks so much about peace and love…

This is the biggest contradiction of psychedelic culture – and one that its community doesn’t want to face. Talking about spirituality, consciousness, unity and peace, yet constantly giving a platform to perpetrators of genocide. The vague and empty statements from the musicians who cancelled their performances at Anta Gathering show that, even among sectors of the community that are more sensitive to this issue, all these words are nothing more than figures of speech.

The Anta Gathering was planned to take place on a land that Yotam Ittah, cousin of the organisers, acquired to build a retreat, yoga and meditation centre – and apparently meditation goes well with events organised by people who served in the IDF during the ongoing genocide.

As explained in a text shared by Darren Sangita, an israeli dissident, psytrance producer and defender of Palestinian rights:

Israeli psychedelic trance is not just a cultural phenomenon – it is deeply entangled with zionism, military trauma, settler identity, and the ongoing occupation. Although individuals in the [psychedelic] scene may see themselves as apolitical and peace-loving, the structures they are part of often reinforce systems of apartheid and erasure.

Portugal: a hotbed of zionist festivals

There have been many complaints about festivals featuring israeli artists who advocate for genocide or have links to zionist production companies and businesses. The complaint about Anta Gathering went viral and caused an uproar calling for its cancellation – but there are many other cases that are just as shocking, if not more so.

The Insomnia Festival, which is taking place this weekend, has seven israeli artists in its line-up, including the duo Astral Projection, who performed for IDF soldiers during the genocide in Gaza and openly call for the genocide of the Palestinian people.

As Paulo Saraiva stated at the end of July:

This year’s Insomnia Festival in Portugal shamelessly includes performances with deep and disturbing ties to the israeli military complex, including Astral Projection, who recently promoted a party in Gaza. (…)

To the Portuguese participants confirmed for the Insomnia Festival, I say: you should be ashamed. Collaborating with a line-up that includes declared supporters of apartheid and genocide clearly reveals where your principles lie – or lack thereof.

The Boom Festival is also full of connections to israel – and this is nothing new. According to an analysis published by the account @shape.of_water, of the headliners who performed on the two main stages at this year’s edition, 47% were israeli – and among the labels represented, four stand out as being israeli or having strong connections to the israeli psytrance scene.

@shape.of_water also reports that israeli artists’ performances have received funding from the zionist Ministry of Culture for ‘psytrance diplomacy’ and reveals, among other things, extensive links between Boom and one of israel’s largest psytrance festivals.

Obviously, zionist participation in Boom is not limited to artists and publishers, but is also found among the audience. The CSP has identified at least three members of the IDF who participated in the genocide in Gaza and were at Boom: Gil Cohavi (Boom, genocide), Ziv Elkayam (Boom, genocide) and Amos Iluz (Boom, genocide). There were probably many more – these are just some of the ones whose profiles are open to the public.

By charging exorbitant prices and excluding Palestinian voices and artists aligned with BDS, Boom ensures that the ‘cure’ is only for the colonisers.

It’s a classic neoliberal psyop: selling trance beats and ayahuasca visions to numb the masses, while real human beings, Palestinian families torn apart by bombs, suffer in silence.

@shape.of_water

Behind these two best-known festivals, there is a panoply of other parties, gatherings, and events that welcome israeli artists.

The River Riders Gathering, for example, took place between July 30th and August 1st in a ‘secret garden’ in central Portugal, and featured at least five israelis in the line-up – among them BickeloZ, the stage name of Dean Bickel, brother of Shahar Bickel and co-organiser of the Anta Gathering.

Anyone wishing to register for River Riders was directed to a WhatsApp number with an israeli country code – the festival organiser is Saar Alperovich, a liberal zionist who criticises Netanyahu’s government, not because he harbours any sympathy for the Palestinians, but because he understands (and rightly so) that the actions of the zionist regime in recent years will lead to its self-destruction. On his social media accounts, we could not find a single condemnation of the apartheid or the occupation, but we did find propaganda against the Palestinian resistance.

Among several other festivals that have been accused on social media of links to zionist artists and producers, ZNA stands out – links that we have not had the opportunity to explore as of the date of publication of this article.

But there are many other events and shows featuring zionists happening everywhere and all the time: the abominable DJ Skazi will perform in Lisbon on November 8th, at an event in a ‘secret location’. A month ago, the public exposure of his relations with the IDF led him to cancel his performance at this year’s Tomorrowland – will we be able to stop him from coming to Lisbon? [note: his performance has since been canceled]

And the presence of zionists is also felt in other spheres of the shanti universe – the Ecstatic Dance LX movement, for example, is riddled with them.

On August 23rd, an Ecstatic Dance LX event, with a full day’s programme, brought together a number of artists, including several israelis who organised events or performed in israel during the ongoing genocide – such as Guy Elhadad, Gili Agilos, Avishag Gaya, Adi Cohen and Maiky. Maiky, for example, performed at the “independence celebration” at the Desert Base in May and at River Riders; toured israel last autumn; was scheduled to perform at the Anta Gathering; and appears to have a longstanding relationship with Fusion Culture.

[After publishing this article, we have been informed that this event, organised by Avishag Gaya, is not related to another group called Ecstatic Dance Lisboa – something we were unaware of, as the group has not taken a position on the genocide in Gaza nor repudiated this event on August 23rd. Despite several requests, we are keeping the paragraphs below (see note at the end of the section).]

The people who are presumed to be most involved in Ecstatic Dance Lisboa – identified as contributors in many of the movement’s publications – mainly post on their social media smiling photos, videos of food while Gaza starves, photos of Boom and dance events, but no reference to the ongoing genocide. A good portrait of the shanti universe, full of people who fill themselves with harmony and inner peace while ignoring the Holocaust of our times – which, after 23 months, continues to progress thanks to the inaction of most Western societies.

The only exception is Shivani Soares, who frequently collaborates with Ecstatic Dance Lisboa and does take a public stance on genocide, having already organised at least one fundraiser for Gaza.

CORRECTION [01/09/25]: This morning we received several messages drawing our attention to the fact that the event on 23 August was not organised by Ecstatic Dance Lisboa, but by Ecstatic Dance LX, an initiative that uses the same name but is organised by israeli people, some of whom moved to Lisbon after October 2023. This attitude of usurpation is not surprising coming from israeli settlers.

This is a good opportunity for Ecstatic Dance Lisboa to finally take a stand on the genocide in Gaza and publicly repudiate this group of Zionists who come to Lisbon to organise dance events that promote ‘connection’ and ‘well-being,’ while continuing to organise and participate in events in occupied Palestine at a time when the genocide in the Gaza Strip is entering its final phase and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank is advancing at a rapid pace.

Individualism and complicity

Let’s be honest: most of the (non-israeli) psychedelic community is not in favour of killing children or exterminating entire peoples – but when confronted with these contradictions, it prefers to ignore them. It takes refuge in clichés such as ‘it’s a very complex conflict’ or ‘both sides’ this or that, in defending an abstract ‘peace and love’, and disregards criticism in the name of individual pleasure, as if to say: ‘don’t bother me with difficult questions, let me enjoy my high in peace’.

The problem is that, at these events, the person next to whom you are ‘enjoying your high in peace’ may be in Gaza in a month’s time exterminating Palestinians – or causing chaos and destruction in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria or Iran.

Those who attend these festivals to socialise with genocidal killers and line the pockets of israeli artists and producers are contributing to the whitewashing of the crimes of the zionist regime. It’s as clear as day – only those who don’t want to see it fail to see it.

And then there are characters like Diogo Faro, who appears on screen as an influencer defending just causes, but has the nerve to go to Boom and share photos on his stories with a watermelon and the book ‘Gaza is everywhere’. No. What is everywhere are the zionists and the lack of principles.

In the dystopian world we live in, you can be an influencer who posts reels about Palestine, but then sacrifice your principles on the altar of hedonism to go and shake your booty at a cool festival. It is this individualism – liberal and postmodern – that is the greatest threat to our collective survival – more so than the fascism and zionism of our elites.

[If you have any complaints or information about festivals or events involving zionists, please send them to contacto@guilhotina.info.]