September 2018
To: members of Pere Ubu,
We are a group of Israeli citizens, opposed to our government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. We have learned of your upcoming gig in Israel, and want to ask you to please cancel it. As we are writing to you, our government is committing an ongoing massacre against the disenfranchised people of Gaza, while further attempting to whitewash it with art and culture. You might want to know that more and more international artists are now taking a stand against this, and therefore boycotting Israel, including Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Of Montreal, Portishead, Brian Eno, Thurston Moore, Elvis Costello, to name a few.
As Israeli citizens, we join this list of artists who oppose Israel’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people.
Still, as we speak, Israel commits an ongoing massacre against the indigenous people of Gaza, who protest their loss of freedom and rights in a nonviolent way [2]. Gaza is under a siege imposed by Israel, which makes them prisoners of the biggest open - air prison in the world. In addition, Israel has just passed the “Nation State Law”, demonstraing its non-democratic apartheid nature [3].This law is an affront to democracy –it enshrines Jewish supremacy over Palestinian, non-Jewish citizens.
Furthermore, In the West Bank, Israel has been employing a brutal, belligerent military regime by further expanding its colonial settlement project [4]; within Israel itself, Palestinian citizens are subjected to over 65 laws denying them basic equality, civil, and human rights [5].
It is important to note that Israel is using artists such as yourselves to whitewash its crimes and its apartheid regime. Or as the former deputy director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry said: "We see culture as a Hasbara [public relations] tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between Hasbara and culture” [6].
Don’t let Israel use you as a pawn. Please don’t endorse Israel’s erasure of the indigenous Palestinian people. Stand with the oppressed and boycott Israel!
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within
[2]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/calls-for-inquiry-into-israels-gaza-killings
[3]https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9565
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22617&LangID=E