From Israeli citizens to The Roundhouse, Cadogan Hall and the Coronet Theatre: Please cancel the Israeli government propaganda festival, TLV in LDN

We are citizens of Israel who oppose our government’s policies of colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid against the Palestinian people [1]. We write to you in support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli
institutions [2], and specifically the call to boycott Israeli academic and cultural institutions [3]. Our support stems from our collective decades of human rights-defense work in Palestine and Israel. We have come to the conclusion that not only is BDS the most effective way to pressure Israel to end its war crimes, but also international institutions and corporations bear a financial, legal, and moral responsibility to end ties with Israel's criminal apartheid system.

It has recently come to our attention that The Roundhouse, Cadogan Hall and the Coronet Theatre will be hosting a four-day festival initiated by the Israeli embassy in London, TLV in London [4].

While the city of Tel Aviv serves as the 'liberal' and 'cool' face of Israel, it is in fact part and parcel of Israel's brutal apartheid regime. Tel Aviv is built on land stolen from the indigenous Palestinian people, including nine Palestinian villages and most significantly the cultural hub of Jaffa [5]. Almost every indigenous Palestinian in what is now Tel Aviv, was ethnically cleansed in the 1948 Nakba. The IDF's military command and control center, which is also responsible for the brutal population control in the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, is situated at the heart of the city. Tel Aviv municipality building is situated on the lands of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of al-Jammasin al-Gharbi, and Tel Aviv University is situated on the lands of the ethnically cleaned Palestinian village of Sheikh Muwannis [6].

In an interview with the TLV in LDN festival director, British multimillionaire Marc Worth (who also happens to serve on the board of the Anglo-Israel Chamber of Commerce) states that "[TLV in London is] really to educate- it's to show the British public, the uninformed British public, and to a great extent, the non-Jewish public, that actually it's not just bad stuff that comes in on the news out of Israel." Worth also mentions that the festival is a way for the city of London to "make amends" to the Israeli embassy for a previous successful BDS campaign [4].

In other words, the Festival is an Israeli state propaganda campaign, aiming to obscure the victims of Israel's apartheid by erasing them and showing off Israeli apartheid's accomplishments. The Israeli government is shamefully ignoring its victims' blood, sweat and tears.

 

Furthermore, the Festival is also a direct response to human rights defenders' success in raising awareness of the Israeli apartheid system. Israel allocates tens of millions of Dollars annually to projects such as TLV in LDN [7], which aim to divert attention from its systematic human rights violations of the indigenous Palestinian people, and quash efforts by human rights defenders' to bring about justice and full equality in our region. Therefore, we urge you to end your role in this ill-conceived enterprise.

 

We would gladly respond to any questions you may have,