Cornell cancels campus performance by singer who said ‘F— Israel,’ ‘long live the intifada’

An R&B singer who said, “F— Israel” has been disinvited from performing at Cornell University’s end-of-semester concert following outcry from Jewish students.

After a student board announced on April 10 that the singer, Kehlani, would headline the school’s annual “Slope Day” concert, the student group Cornellians for Israel called on the school to rescind the pick. Initially, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff told students that it was “too late” to secure another performer and that the school had altered her contract to mitigate any political displays.

But in an email to the Cornell community this morning, Kotlikoff announces that Kehlani’s performance has been canceled.

“In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt, and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos, and on social media,” Kotlikoff, who is Jewish, wrote in an email. “While any artist has the right in our country to express hateful views, Slope Day is about uniting our community, not dividing it.”

An alternative lineup for the event has not been announced, but Kotlikoff said that the school would “revise the process for researching and selecting performers” moving forward.

Kehlani released a music video last June that flashes the message “Long Live the Intifada,” a reference to two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the latter of which killed an estimated 1,000 people. The previous month, in a video on X, she condemned other artists for staying silent on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying, “It’s f— Israel, it’s f— Zionism, and it’s also f— a lot of y’all too.”

The controversy surrounding the artist’s upcoming performance comes as Cornell is poised to lose $1 billion in federal funding from the Trump administration, ostensibly over its handling of campus antisemitism.