Don’t Play Apartheid Israel [DPAI] would like to extend our warmest congratulations to the Student Representative Council [SRC] of the University of the Witwatersrand on its unanimous principled resolution to support boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel. This is an immense breakthrough which will immeasurably strengthen the global boycott of apartheid Israel. The resolution states that the University will “not participate in any form of cultural or academic collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions and will not provide support to Israeli cultural or academic institutions”.
We recognise that the SRC may come under significant pressure for its embrace of the Palestinian call for BDS, and wish to extend our support in firm solidarity. We look toward the day when Palestinian people have attained their just rights and freedom.
Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) is a group of over 900 members which seeks to inform musicians of the Palestinian call to boycott Israel, and the extent to which their decision to play in the apartheid state will be instrumentalized – against their will – as propaganda for the maintenance of a horrifying status quo in Israel/Palestine: that is a brutal, decades-long occupation, ongoing ethnic cleansing, continual land theft, passing of over 20 racist laws within Israel/’48, and the crackdown on human rights groups. We represent over 900 members from around the globe who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel.
It is with much pleasure that Don’t Play Apartheid Israel applauds the ground-breaking policy of the South African government expressed by Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Ebrahim Ebrahim, to discourage South Africans from visiting Israel.
As Ebrahim said, Israel is indeed “an occupying power and is doing all sorts of things in the Palestine occupied territory which has been condemned by the entire international community.”
The Russell Commission and South African Human Sciences Research Council have affirmed Israel perpetrates systematic apartheid and colonialism, both crimes against humanity, on the Palestinian people. Rather than meet its obligations under international law, Israel continues to expand its illegal settlements in the West Bank, torture Palestinian detainees held without charge or trial, deny Palestinian Israelis equal rights and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories even basic human rights, collectively punish through closure the entire population of Gaza and many other war crimes and human rights abuses.
Thus, we deplore the scurrilous attack by the South African Zionist Federation on the South African government for its principled policy. We encourage the South African government to remain firm and expand its support to embrace fully the principles of the Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, in order that Palestinians gain justice and freedom, despite predictable international pressure brought to bear on Israel’s behalf.
The Israeli ambassador, Dov Segev-Steinberg, demonstrates a flawed understanding of history and the process of liberation when he refers to ‘the South African way of dialogue to promote peace’, as, without justice, there can be no reconciliation. The South African government is acting in a way that will facilitate justice.
Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) seeks to inform musicians of the Palestinian call to boycott Israel, and the extent to which their decision to play in the apartheid state will be instrumentalized – against their will – as propaganda for the maintenance of a horrifying status quo in Israel/Palestine: that there is a brutal, decades-long occupation, ongoing ethnic cleansing, continual land theft, passing of over 20 racist laws within Israel/’48, and the crackdown on human rights groups. We represent over 900 members from around the globe who believe that it is essential for musicians and other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel.
Don’t Play Apartheid Israel [DPAI] would like to extend our warmest congratulations to the Student Representative Council [SRC] of the University of the Witwatersrand on its unanimous principled resolution to support boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel. This is an immense breakthrough which will immeasurably strengthen the global boycott of apartheid Israel. The resolution states that the University will “not participate in any form of cultural or academic collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions and will not provide support to Israeli cultural or academic institutions”.