January 2017
Dear Natalie Imbruglia,
We are Israeli citizens, opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. Our long years of anti-racist activism have brought us to the understanding that the most effective way to stop the apartheid system in Israel is to boycott it. Therefore, we strongly support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), aimed at ending the apartheid regime through a nonviolent strategy [2].
We write to you, asking that you heed the Palestinian call and cancel your concert in Israel.
As this is your first concert in Israel, we wish to bring your attention to some of the continuoues human rights violations perpetrated by Israel in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, many of which amount to war crimes under international law that you may not be aware of;
In the past year alone, 109 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians, leading many NGO’s to raise allegations against Israel for extrajudicial executions. A high percentage of those killed were minors.
According to the UN’s report, over 1.1 Million Palestinians in the Gaza strip are dependent on humanitarian aid; around 65,000 people are still displaced due to Israel’s massive bombardment campaign in 2014, hospitals and primary healthcare services struggle to function without adequate stocks of lifesaving medicines and supplies, access to clean water and electricity is sporadic for most inhabitants. [3]
During 2016 the Israeli authorities demolished or seized 1,089 Palestinian-owned structures throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 1,593 Palestinians and affecting the livelihoods of another 7,101. [4] As of mid-2016, Israel is detaining and imprisoning around 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners in prisons inside Israel, several hundreds of whom are under- aged. Moreover, Israel holds 692 Palestinians under administrative detention,, preventing from them the most basic rights. [5]
These are only a few examples of the daily reality of Palestinians which consists of daily military incursions, widespread arrests, lack of freedom of movement due to hundreds of checkpoints, home demolitions, and many other violations of human rights and international law.
Tel Aviv, where you are about to perform, is the centerpiece in Israel’s ongoing campaign to convince people to believe that Israel is a “cool” and “cultured” democracy [6], while severely hiding a callous history of colonization, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. Tel Aviv sits atop the ruins of Al M’asudyia, a Palestinian village that was inhabited before the colonial immigration, and whose Palestinian indigenous inhabitants were expelled from during the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing done by Zionist militias in 1948) [7].
As Israeli citizens and political activists who fight against this brutal reality, we believe that one of the ways we will be able to stop Israel’s policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing is through BDS.
We have the utter-most respect for your show of support with the AIDS and Cancer research foundations, as well as for your work for animal rights. Therefore we ask you to raise your voice against the continuous violations of human rights, not just with words, but with actions.
Please cancel your concert in apartheid Israel.
We will gladly address any questions or comments you may have.
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
(1) http://boycottisrael.info/
(2) https://bdsmovement.net/call
(4) http://www.ochaopt.org/content/record-number-demolitions
(5) http://www.btselem.org/hebrew/administrative_detention/statistics
(6) https://pulsemedia.org/2012/07/24/boycotting-the-white-city-good-for-tel-avivians/
(7)https://electronicintifada.net/content/jaffa-eminence-ethnic-cleansing/8088