veteran producer and reality TV judge, had signed a deal to serve as one of the judges on next season of the Israeli musical reality show which is slated to begin filming this summer.
Overall the weekend, Reshet, the Israeli company that produces X Factor locally confirmed Cowell canceled without elaborating on the reasons for his decision.
A Reshet representative however told Variety that members of Cowell’s staff had reached out with “legitimate concerns” over his participation in the show after the recent violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but that at the time he had made no final decision.
Rumors of Cowell pulling out of the show began last week in the wake of renewed violence in the region between Israel and Hamas, and with reports of confrontations between Jewish and Arab Israelis in the streets of the country’s cities.
Jewish News, Britain’s largest Jewish newspaper cited an unnamed source close to the media mogul that claimed Cowell could not take part in the show for “a number of reasons” and was “bitterly disappointed.”