*Dear Alanis Morissette, we write to you with great urgency as Israel escalates it's onslaught on the Gaza strip*
We are a group of citizens of Israel who oppose Israel’s military
occupation, apartheid policies and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian
People. We support the Palestinian civil society call for boycott,
divestment and sanctions against Israel, until it ceases to deny the
indigenous Palestinian population their most basic human rights [1]. Many
of us are fans, who love your music and the fighting and compassionate
spirit that shines through it. We write to you to ask you to cancel your
performance in Israel.
For many artists this request is counter intuitive. After all, an artist’s
tool of self expression and protest is their art. This is why we’d like to
provide some political context:
Israel's attempts to mask systematic human-rights abuses and decades-long
oppression against the Palestinians, rely on its ability to maintain a
“progressive” and “democratic” image in the eyes of the international
community. In a cynical PR attempt to differentiate Tel Aviv from Israel,
performances by international artists in Tel Aviv are used to market the
city as a "cool", "enlightened" bubble. This is patently false. Tel Aviv
has been built (to be precise, expanded) on the ruins of several
Palestinian villages, whose inhabitants had been killed or expelled during
the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948. [2]
Israel's apartheid policies, however, are inherent even to something as
seemingly light-hearted and joyous as a concert: Palestinian fans of your
music, living under the brutal Israeli military occupation of the West
Bank, or the hermetic siege of the Gaza Strip, will be prohibited from
coming to Tel Aviv and enjoying your performance.
Of course, the hardship entailed in life under occupation goes much further
than the denial of access to concerts. All aspects of Palestinian lives are
controlled by a foreign occupying army, from the ability to study, work or
travel to building permits on their own land. As we write these words,
Israel is demolishing the homes of entire communities within Israel's
armistice line of 1948 [3]; In the occupied territories [4], the besieged
people of Gaza (56% of which are children), still recovering from the
merciless 2009 military onslaught known as “Operation Cast Lead” [5], are
periodically exposed to Israel’s aerial bombings and tank shelling [6]; And
West Bank Palestinians, torn apart by the apartheid wall, suffering from
theft of their lands, house demolitions, arbitrary arrest, torture, lack of
water, extreme restrictions on their freedom of movement, and the constant
threat of Israel’s military presence [7]
As a response to 66 years of life under occupation and a continuing ethnic
cleansing, representatives of Palestinian civil society, including over 180
different organizations such as women’s groups, academic and worker unions,
and prisoner organizations, have called for a boycott, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) campaign against complicit Israeli institutions. [1]
Your role, as an artists, is simple. The government of Israel using
international artists as “yet another example of the world-class music
available in Israel” [8] ( http://img.skitch.com/20120911-1d9ery38kcm9jwpu87yws6x5ny.jpg), to portray itself as a “modern”, “progressive” and “western” state, in order to
whitewash its crimes against the Palestinian people. You don’t have to
cooperate, and be used in such a way. You can refuse to perform, as many
artists did in apartheid South Africa, and send a clear message that you
will not lend a hand to Israel’s violations of the indigenous Palestinian
people’s most basic human rights.
Many artists have chosen not to perform in Israel for this reason exactly,
such as Roger Waters, Elvis Costelo, Bjork, Snoop Dog, Gill Scott Heron,
Faithless, Three Little Birds, Brian Eno, Dervish, Cat Power, tUnEyArDs,
Devendra Banhart and many more.
We hope that you choose to join this growing list.
We will gladly address any comments or questions you may have.
Sincerely,
BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
http://www.boycottisrael.info/
[1] Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
[2] Boycotting the White City: Good for Tel Avivians,
http://pulsemedia.org/2012/07/24/boycotting-the-white-city-good-for-tel-...
[3] Stop the Prawer Plan!, http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_Prawer/
[4] Israel issues eviction orders to 40 families in Nablus,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=534834
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mwFwqwoJ9OU
[5] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): GAZA FLASH
APPEAL, http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/301EA3FE8905E608852575AC0069887C
[6] Occupied Palestine #GazaUnderAttack,
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/?s=%23GazaUnderAttack&x=0&y=0
[7] B'tselem http://www.btselem.org/
[8] Israeli Ministry of Tourism website,
http://img.skitch.com/20120911-1d9ery38kcm9jwpu87yws6x5ny.jpg