Vandals sparked outrage and international news when they placed a Palestinian flag sticker on the Star of David necklace worn by a statue depicting late music star Amy Winehouse.
Winehouse, who died in 2011, was a world-renowned British soul singer and songwriter of Jewish descent, whose struggles with fame, drugs and alcohol played out on the world stage. The singer with the imposing beehive and a cat-eye movement that reaches her eyebrows would have turned 40 on September 14. The statue bearing her image was unveiled in London in September 2014, on what would have been her 31st birthday.
The statue was vandalized amid an international wave of protests amid the war in Gaza. The BBC reported that a spokesperson for the local Metropolitan Police said they understand this “will have caused distress to many people.”
Police went on to recall: “On Monday we were alerted that a member of the public had placed a sticker on the Star of David necklace on the statue of Amy Winehouse in the north courtyard of Camden Market. This was immediately removed and the incident was reported. to the police.”
Amid an international wave of protests over the war in Gaza, a protester placed a Palestinian flag over the Star of David on Amy Winehouse's statue. (CYRIL VILLEMAIN/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Camden Market remains first and foremost a place of diversity, a global destination that welcomes all,” the police added, according to the BBC.
British singer Amy Winehouse sits with her father Mitch as they wait for news of her Grammy award at The Riverside Studios for the 50th Grammy Awards ceremony on February 10, 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images for NARAS)
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They are currently searching for evidence, such as security camera footage, to find who really committed this act of seemingly political vandalism.
“Covering the Star of David, a well-known symbol of Judaism, on the statue of a British Jewish singer, with a sticker of the Palestinian Authority flag, is anti-Semitic,” a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism reportedly said of the incident. . . “Right now, 69% of British Jews say they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism. When not even a statue of a Jewish person can get away with it, is it any surprise?”
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By contrast, TMZ reported that Winehouse's father and the administrator of her estate, Mitch Winehouse, told their outlet, “It's not very pretty, but it was just a sticker.”
Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.
