October 2019
Dear Aurora,
We are citizens of Israel, opposed to our government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. We write to ask you to respect the Palestinian civil society call [2], especially its cultural aspect [3], and to cancel your concert in Israel.
Since late March 2018, Israel has been committing an ongoing massacre in the Gaza strip, of unarmed Palestinian protesters who are calling for an end to the 12-year-long siege that Israel has imposed on them [4]. This siege renders them prisoners of the biggest open-air prison in the world, which the United Nations has warned will become "unliveable" by next year [5].
In the West Bank, Israel has been employing a brutal, belligerent military regime for the past 50 years, and expanding its colonial settlement project, which a recent report of The office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights has described as “pervasive and devastating [violations of human rights], reaching every facet of Palestinian life”, further listing numerous violations such as "restrictions on freedom of religion, movement and education; their rights to land and water; access to livelihoods and their right to an adequate standard of living; their rights to family life; and many other fundamental human rights." [6].
Within Israel itself, indigenous Palestinian citizens - 21% of the population - are subjected to over 65 laws denying them basic equality, civil, and human rights [7], culminating in its most recent act of legislation: the 'Nation-State Law', which enshrines apartheid into Israel's equivalent of a constitution [8].
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn’t even begin to describe what life is like for the millions of children, women, and men, who have been living under these ever-deteriorating policies for the past seven decades.
You may be asking yourself what this has to do with your concert. For one, the Israeli promoters of your concert, ZUZZ Agency, are also part of the production team for the InDnegev festival. The festival is partnered with the government's Negev Development Authority [9], which is the architect and executioner of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of 239,500 indigenous Palestinian Bedouins, who account for almost 3% of Israel's citizenry [10].
Secondly, the club you'll be playing, the Barby Club, has a history of support for Israel's army during its bloodiest acts of war. In 2014, while Israel was bombing the Gaza concentration camp for over 50 days [11], the Barby club was at an army base, giving out "Fuck you we're from Israel" T-shirts to the soldiers perpetrating crimes against humanity [12].
Aurora, in your September interview with NME [13] you said "The world won’t listen to scientific proof that the world is dying, so maybe it will listen to the dreamers, the children... Believe in us, and maybe we’ll be the generation that saves the world, rather than the one that killed it. The world is bleeding. It’s up to us now." We hope you'll heed the proof that Palestine and its children [14] are bleeding. We believe that you can help save them rather than kill them. Please don't ignore their call to hold Israel accountable. Please cancel your concert in Israel.
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within
[1] http://boycottisrael.info/
[2] https://bdsmovement.net/call
[3] https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/cultural-boycott-guidelines
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIOPT/A_HRC_40_74.pdf
[6] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22617&LangID=E
[7] http://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771
[8] https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9565
[9] https://www.indnegev.co.il/eng/home#about
[10] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190129-israel-plan-to-displace-36000-arabs-in-negev/
[11] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/key-figures-2014-hostilities
[12] https://www.facebook.com/BarbyOfficial/posts/807838025905978