text: New Zealand singer cancelled concert after letter by BDS activists highlighted Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
  Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev said she hoped Lorde "reneges on her decision" and Israel's ambassador to New Zealand, Itzhak Gerberg, invited the singer to discuss the issue with him personally.
  On New Year's Eve, the 21-year-old was the subject of a full-page advert taken out by a pro-Israel advocacy group in the Washington Post newspaper, which accused her of being a "bigot" who had chosen to align herself with "those committed to Israel's fiscal destruction".
  On his Twitter account, music journalist Eric Boehlert described the advert as "pathetic", adding: "Lorde doesn't have to perform anywhere she doesn't want to, (the) accusations are (an) ugly attempt at bullying."
  According to the University of Exeter's Professor Ilan Pappe, reactions such as the one to Lorde's decision are an "indication that the cultural boycott is working.
  "Lorde has no political background, no track record as an activist," he said. "It was a pure reaction of a conscientious young woman whose basic decency has led her to her action.
  "There is nothing Israel can do against it, and it drives them mad.
  "This is why you have the disproportionate reaction."
  That is an opinion shared by Sachs, who said Lorde's decision was "a huge victory for the BDS movement, perhaps the biggest victory yet.
  "It is a huge turning point, and demonstrates that all the time, effort and money put into delegitimising BDS and painting the movement as anti-Semitic or extreme is not working," she said, adding: "People are beginning to realise that BDS is a legitimate and essential non-violent strategy to help end Israel's human rights violations and the occupation."
  Calling the reaction by pro-Israeli activists "expected", Sachs said Lorde's cancellation was evidence that young people, including those who are Jews, no longer had a blind spot with regard to Israel's "oppression of Palestinians.
  "That's a scary prospect for Zionists and the hysterical and, frankly, tone-deaf response illustrates that."