Coldplay aims to play Dead Sea peace concerts

Coldplay, one of the world’s leading rock bands, will reportedly come to the holy land in November 2017 to play two joint “peace concerts” for Israelis and Palestinians.

The unprecedented joint concerts have been scheduled for November 3 and November 4, at an outdoor location north of the Dead Sea, and tickets will be sold both in Israel and in the Palestinian territories, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Monday night.

The goal of the concerts is to promote human rights and to bring people together, the report said.

Ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters played a concert at the Israeli Jewish-Muslim peace village Neve Shalom in 2006, and Leonard Cohen tried in vain to arrange a concert in the Palestinian areas when he played in Israel in 2009, but the Coldplay plan to perform for a joint Israeli-Palestinian audience is unprecedented for an act of its stature and drawing-power.

Fifty-thousand tickets are to go on sale for each of the two shows.

The TV report did not give the specifics of the intended venue, saying only that it is an “agricultural area.” The area immediately to the north of the Dead Sea is in the disputed West Bank, under overall Israeli security control.

Provided final security and other logistical arrangements are completed, tickets will go on sale shortly, the TV report said.

The British band is set to come to Israel two weeks before the shows, and record a song with Israeli and Palestinian artists.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin came to Israel two months ago, directly from Mombai, where the band headlined the Global Citizen Festival. He was said at the time to be touring sites for a possible Global Citizen Festival here.

Two recent Coldplay videos were directed by Israelis.