It’s J.Lo’s party and she’s starting it today as she arrives in Israel

"I’m going to Israel, so I am so excited, it’s my first time.”

By HANNAH BROWN
Jennifer Lopez in Israel on July 30, 2019. (photo credit: GON BEN ARI)
Jennifer Lopez in Israel on July 30, 2019.
(photo credit: GON BEN ARI)
J.Lo – aka Jenny from the Block, aka Jennifer Lopez – landed at Ben-Gurion Airport Wednesday, ahead of her Thursday night concert at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv as part of her “It’s My Party” tour.
The Bronx-born pop diva and actress boarded an El Al flight Tuesday with her boyfriend, Alex Rodriguez, a former third baseman for the New York Yankees.
“I’m going to Israel, so I am so excited. It’s my first time,” Rodriguez, also known as A-Rod, told the New York Post earlier this month. Lopez and Rodriguez were accompanied by her 11-year-old twins, Emma and Max, from her marriage to Marc Anthony, and Rodriguez’s two daughters from a previous marriage.
Reshet reporter Gil Mishali tweeted photos early Tuesday morning of J.Lo aboard the jet, noting that she was wearing a heavy sweater and quipping, “I hope somebody will tell her that a sweater isn’t needed in the Israeli heat.” Lopez clearly knows that flights are often overly air conditioned and dressed accordingly. But when she stepped off the plane she was wearing a body-hugging midriff-baring two-piece leopard-print suit and large sunglasses.

The singer is bringing a 100-person crew, including dancers, musicians and technical staff schlepping 45 tons of equipment for the Thursday show.
The tour, part of Lopez’s 50th birthday celebration, includes shows in Europe following her performance in Tel Aviv. It’s her first world tour in seven years, and will include her new song “Medicine,” a collaboration with American rapper French Montana that was released last week.
Several BDS groups joined forces for a “J.Lo Don’t Go” campaign. The effort included a petition asking Lopez to “open [her] heart to Palestinian children and cancel” her show in Tel Aviv. Lopez didn’t respond.

J.Lo should be right at home in Israel, where being tough and assertive are core values. She has faced many controversies over the course of her career, from her recent Grammy appearance where she drew fire for performing a Motown tribute, since she’s not a Motown singer – “You can’t tell people what they can and can’t do – what they should sing or not sing,” she said after her performance – to an infamous 1998 interview with Movieline magazine, where she certainly couldn’t have been accused of false modesty. Asked why she her movie career was doing well, she said, “Because I’m the best!”
She had sharp words for other actresses she thought were not the best, including Cameron Diaz (“A lucky model who’s been given a lot of opportunities I just wish she would have done more with.”) and Gwyneth Paltrow (“I swear to God, I don’t remember anything she was in. Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.”).
Lopez also said, presciently, that it was wrong that her Out of Sight co-star George Clooney made so much more money than she did, and called out Wesley Snipes for harassing her on the set of Money Train.
There are entire twitter and Reddit threads devoted to analyzing J.Lo’s refreshingly honest interview and you can read the entire text here.
Given this history, it’s no surprise that the BDS movement did not win her over.


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