By Best News 
Andreï Makarevich, one of Russia’s most famous rock stars, is not too fond of Tel Aviv’s Smolarz Auditorium, where he was due to perform on the evening of Saturday, December 21, 2024. With its 1,200 seats stacked several stories high, the concert hall reminded him too much of “the halls of the Kremlin,” said the 73-year-old guitarist and founder of the band Mashina Vremeni (“The Time Machine”). Like the star of the evening, the majority of the audience was made up of opponents to Vladimir Putin’s regime who no longer want to, or can no longer, return to Russia.
As a supporter of Ukraine since 2014 and the annexation of Crimea, the Jewish musician moved to Israel in 2022, before being designated a “foreign agent” by the Kremlin a year later. Since then, Makarevich, who opposes Putin’s ambitions for territorial conquest, has become a fervent supporter of Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.
On December 22, Makarevich entertained guests at his house perched on Mount Carmel in the north of the country, between two dates on his world tour. On the walls, where musical instruments, old pistols and ancient sabers hang, the singer pointed to a map entitled “Judea under Herod the Great and his children,” in reference to the king of the Holy Land from 37 to 4 BC, who was famous for rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem (of which only the Wailing Wall remains today). The region is depicted as a single Jewish territory, with no mention of the existence of the Palestinian people. “Just look at this map,” said the rock star. “The Israeli occupation doesn’t exist.”
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