Politics

April 21, 2012December 11, 2020

Campagne BDS France : Renaud Garcia-Fons, Don’t Play for Apartheid

French composer and double-bass player Renaud Garcia-Fons is scheduled at the White City festival in Tel Aviv, apartheid Israel on May 6th. This is the English translation of an open letter written to him by the French BDS Campaign, Campagne BDS France. Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) has made a facebook calling on all the artists scheduled to perform at the festival to cancel: Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City.

Paris, 17 April 2012

Dear Renaud Garcia-Fons,

On 6 May next, you plan to give a concert in Tel Aviv at the “White City music festival”.

We are surprised to learn that you, who are attached to the respect for human dignity, would perform in a country which has been mocking international law for more than sixty years. We recall your participation in an “Orchestra for Peace” at the “Human Solidarity Concert” in Paris in 2002.

Miguel Angel Estrella, who was at your side during that concert, is today a member of the support committee of the Russell Tribunal for Palestine. The conclusions* of that tribunal at its recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, are unambiguous: Israel is responsible for grave violations of international law and is guilty of the crime of apartheid.

Renaud Garcia-Fons, are you aware that, while hundreds of music-lovers would be able to enjoy your talent in Tel Aviv, thousands of others would be deprived of it, being relegated behind a separation wall?

For decades the Palestinian people have been victims of Israel’s apartheid policy, which scandalously curtails their most elementary rights: their access to water, to education, to medical care, their freedom of movement.

A people under colonolisation in the West Bank, a people under a blockade in Gaza, a people under discrimination in Israel, added to the refugees whose right to return was recognized by the United Nations but never implemented by Israel. The international community closes its eyes while the Israeli government behaves with total impunity: its killing of hundreds of civilians in 2009 during the “Cast Lead” attack on Gaza; its constant military incursions in the West Bank and its military check-points there; the numerous inequalities between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel regarding medical care, work, and public services; the thousands of uprooted Palestinians living as refugees all over the world; the peaceful activists participating in the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, killed in cold blood.

Faced with such injustice, Palestinian civil society decided in 2005 to launch the BDS campaign: boycott-divestment-sanctions against Israel as long as it does not respect international law. This movement, inspired by the struggle of the South Africans against apartheid, has now taken on international dimensions and the boycott of the State of Israel is growing everywhere.

Today, numerous artists have chosen not to perform in Israel as long as that state does not change its policies. In the film world, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Meg Ryan, Dustin Hoffman and Mike Leigh, along with musicians such as Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costllo, Gil Scott-Heron, Gorillaz, The Pixies, Massive Attack, Gilles Vigneault, Vanessa Paradis, have all cancelled their appearances which were scheduled in different Israeli cities.

By going to perform in Israel you would be participating in the normalisation of a colonial situation. Please don’t help to close the eyes of French citizens by acting as if nothing unacceptable is happening over there. We can readily imagine that you were unaware of the situation on the ground, but from now on you can no longer say “I didn’t know!”.

If you would like to have more details about the policies of the Israeli government, we would be glad to provide them.

Dear Renaud Garcia-Fons, we appeal to you to join the artists who are boycotting Israel as long as that state refuses to respect international law, and to cancel your concert at the festival in Tel Aviv.

With best wishes,

BDS French Campaign

CICP

21 ter rue Voltaire

75011 Paris

http://www.bdsfrance.org/

SOURCE

* http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa/south-africa-session-full-findings-french

April 15, 2012August 24, 2022

Welcome to Palestine, Unless You Criticise Apartheid Israel

Handala on Air Flotilla 2 One and a half thousand humanitarians are hoping to visit the West Bank to participate in a children’s education project. They are such a threat to the apartheid zionist entity that Israel is demanding airlines cancel tickets – so far Lufthansa, Jet2 and Air France have obliged, making them and other airlines who collaborate with Israel’s obscene demands legitimate boycott targets.

The activists have been invited by 25 Palestinian civil society organizations to spend next week in the Bethlehem area building an elementary school, planting trees, and repairing village wells that Palestinians say have been damaged by Israeli settlers.

Israel has a habit of barring those who critique its atrocious oppression and commit the sin of supporting Palestinian human rights, including Richard Falk, Noam Chomsky, Guenter Grass and Norman Finkelstein.

The bans on entering Israel are made on political grounds:

If you are a Likud supporter, flying into the Israeli airport should present no problem. But if you are a supporter of Palestinian rights, the Netanyahu government could stop you from going to Bethlehem on purely political grounds – even if you have never committed any crime and have no intention of ever committing one, even if you have never attended a Palestinian protest in the West Bank and have no intention of attending one. You could be barred by the Netanyahu government from going to Bethlehem simply for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian human rights.

…

Apparently, you can be deported by the Netanyahu government not because of what you do, but because of who you are. If you are an “activist”, then Palestinians welcome you to Bethlehem, but you may not be able to get there, because the Netanyahu government may deport you for being such an “activist”.

If Israel doesn’t want people to visit Palestine through the Tel Aviv airport, it should allow Palestinians to open their own and to administrate their own entries and departures – in other words, end the criminal Occupation enforced by Israel. After four and a half decades of brutal military Occupation by the apartheid zionist entity, the global community is stepping up boycotts, divestments and sanctions as punitive actions to end Israel’s criminal oppression and imprisonment of the Indigenous Palestinian population whose lands and resources Israel continues to thieve with impunity. Governments refuse or are unable to act responsibly to ensure Indigenous Palestinians have their full human rights and to enforce more than 30 UN Security Council resolutions of which Israel remains in breach.

UPDATE 15/4/12

How Israel orders your Airline around: The Letter which bars #Airflotilla2 activist from boarding (Update!)

Sami Kishawi marks the atrocious Israeli admonitions to humanitarians participating in the air flotilla and the hypocritical threat letter to airlines permitting them to fly.

News of detained WTP participants

Zionism is a *real* threat to 11 Israeli Jews now arrested at al-Lydd airport by the antisemitic #IOF for supporting #Fly2Palestine

Pro-Palestinian activists detained in Israel

Palestine / Israel Links

Israeli forces raid West Bank civil defense office
Israeli fascist goonsquad attacks Palestinians and internationals. “Eight Palestinians and four internationals were arrested and at least three people were injured by the blows they suffered at the hands of police. One Italian woman suffered an injury to her shoulder that required hospitalization.”
Ben White on cultural boycott: “Boycott is a strategy, not a principle. And as such, it’s a response to a call from Palestinian civil society, which is seeking to mobilise international civil society as a way of realising their basic rights. It is a familiar tactic, used to resist local and global injustices. Are Palestinians prohibited from resisting colonial occupation – and looking for allies as they do so?”
Palestinians frustrated over Quartet statement ?

“Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi took a much harder line, saying the Quartet statement, which made no reference to Israel’s ongoing occupation of the territories, demonstrated “a lack of will” to establish a Palestinian state.

“Unfortunately, the Quartet did not propose any specific policy measures or means of engagement required to create a breakthrough in the current crisis,” she said in a statement.

“The real issue is not ‘negotiations’ but rather ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” Ashrawi said.

“The glaring absence of any reference to this occupation portrays a lack of will to bring an end to it and to establish a viable Palestinian state.”‘

OPT: Protection of civilians – OCHA Weekly report (28 March-3 April 2012) (3 April 2012) – Multiple war crimes, collective punishment, murders, mayhem, oppression – the apartheid zionist entity never fails to appall.

Israel’s Killing Spree on Verdun Street

Israel assassinated key strong Palestinian leaders in 1973 to assist continuance of its oppression and land theft. “each of the three slain men had singular qualities that made the Israelis want to eliminate them, says Maan Bashour, who was a member of the PLO information committee at the time as a representative of the Arab Liberation Front. “[They struck] Kamal Adwan because of his activities inside Palestine, and because he was the youngest of the resistance leaders and a major inspiration for youth; Abu Yousef because he was one of the main planners of the operations of the Black September organization; and Kamal Nasser, the freedom fighter from Ramallah, as a cultural and media star with his popular and especially Christian credentials,” says Bashour.”

Debating Palestine: Representation, Resistance, and Liberation – Abdulhadi argues: “We need to restore this sense of the indivisibility of justice and combat tendencies that present Palestine as an exceptional case of suffering and liberation.”

PACBI-Serrat and Sabina: Refrain from Entertaining Apartheid Israel until Freedom, Justice and Equality :

‘You both struggled under the oppressive and fascist regime of Franco in Spain, and must know what it means to resist oppression, and not to entertain it on its terms. We ask you in this spirit to stand with the oppressed Palestinians who are appealing to you to reconsider your performance. ‘

Ron Paul confirms his ziophilia, sucks up to conservative christan zionists
Oh oh, the zionist cover is blown – Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor knows Iran hasn’t threatened to wipe out Israel.
Rightwing zionist fleeces a poor Californian community and sends the profits to finance illegal settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem
How you know the PA collaborates with Israel: it shuts down the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation “claiming the group’s activities were not consistent with the interests of the Palestinian people.”
Don’t let the rightwing fanatics censor truth – Don’t let the Religious Right silence Desmond Tutu
The zionist SWC proceeds to attempt to obliterate Muslim culture – even the graves of dead Muslims are not exempt from annihilation. “Since the plans to construct the Museum of Tolerance on Mamilla Cemetery began in 2004, nearly 60 other descendants of those buried at the cemetery and I have made repeated appeals to try and stop the disinterring and destruction of the remains of our ancestors.
Israel’s Lawless Settlement Project ~ Fact Checks

Why Does the Occupation Continue – Max Ajl reviews Shir Hever’s “The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation”
We are privileged, say 2 Israeli refusers

April 14, 2012December 11, 2020

Leave the Land Alone

Leave the Land Alone

We share this land of timeless dreams,
mysteries of tree and bone,
tribal journeys of dance and song
symbols painted on stone.

Songlines of the Indigenes,
they used to call it home,
broken by colonial greed
the land had never known.

We poison the lakes and dam up streams,
this land that is our home,
quarry the hills and cut down trees,
don’t know how to leave it alone.

Why do we break this fragile land
and bring it to its knees?
Our eyes are blind with dollar signs,
so much that we should see.

Do you fear the force of machinery
and big money lying?
it’s hard to live guilt-free
when the country’s dying,

All that’s part of you and me
laid waste by greed and scheming,
don’t you know we’ve taken enough,
Let the land lie dreaming.

Jinjirrie 2007

Senator Bob Brown, leader and founder of the Australian Greens from 1992 until April 2012, has departed politics suddenly, with his position to be filled by Senator Christine Milne. In a country where multi-party plurality is nigh on impossible, the Greens have benefited from growing awareness in the community of the limited nature of our most precious Australian resources – our native fauna and flora, and that on which we all depend for survival – water.

Bob’s charisma and record as an environmental campaigner led many ALP voters disillusioned with Labor’s neoliberalism and environmental compromises to jump ship. How will the Greens fare without Bob at the helm? will the flagging ALP be able to woo back voters and will the party machine have the foresight to incorporate more green promises in order to do so?

Salute, Bob – your common sense and values will be sorely missed in public life – your record as an exceptional advocate for the environment and humanity is unequalled in Australia’s history. I hope you have some happy years of bushwalking and photography and find time to record your memoirs.

April 9, 2012

The Hasbaroid Song

When your argument’s been lost, just give it one more toss
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

If the ‘terrorists’ produce inconvenient facts and you’re feeling that familiar lack
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

So your logic’s in a knot and lies are all you’ve got
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

Nothing thrills like raw hate, you can never underrate
The benefits of the hasbara stash and Khhhhammmmass, Khhhhammasss, Khammmasss.

The problem is all theirs, so please remember in your prayers
The goddamn, nasty, convenient stash of Khhaammmmass, Khhhhammmass, Khhammmass.

by Jinjirrie 2011-12

April 4, 2012December 11, 2020

Music Cannot Cross Apartheid Walls : Boycott the Tel Aviv White City Festival

The Israeli side of the apartheid wall — A view (above) of the Israel side of the wall, notice the olive trees illegally annexed, and the attempt to "pretty" it up with a round-a-bout.

A new facebook page has been launched, “Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City.” The creators are rallying for support to ask a number of international artists to boycott the Tel Aviv White City music festival, which is sponsored by the Israeli government. Just a few of the artists who are being asked to boycott include Bobby McFerrin, Courtney Pine, Oi Va Voi, Regina Carter and the Indian group Rajasthan Josh.

The facebook page states:

“In respect of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel, we ask musicians of conscience to boycott the Tel Aviv White City Music Festival.”

The cultural boycott is a very important aspect the BDS movement. The cultural boycott is evidenced as being so very important because of the vast amount of money Israel spends specifically to counteract that aspect of the boycott.

It appears artists are often told by their Israeli booking agents that music brings people together, and that BDS builds walls. Recently an artist wrote that he would not boycott his Israeli fans. The UK group Younger Brother insisted that their concert would help bring peace through music, and that their Israeli fans were all about peace.

International artists that participate in Israeli government supported festivals are participating in an insidious effort by the powerful oppressive state of Israel to “normalize” the settler-colonial policies. There is nothing normal about extreme racism, the crushing oppression of education and the illegal apartheid wall. It is so ironic, then, when artists who break the boycott say that BDS builds walls. These is no wall that stands out on the face of this planet that is used like the wall Israel has created. The wall illegally annexes Palestinian land, cuts off families, schools, and access to jobs. It erases views of the sunrise and sunset, and is strewn with trash, dotted with sniper towers, and dehumazing checkpoints. Even cattle are treated better than some Palestinians who wait for hours in the heat or cold only to be buzzed through a checkpoint with an automated program, controlled remotely.

Money is liberally invested in festivals that are designed to create the illusion for the Israeli population that their state is normal. They are created to convince the international community that Israel is not only normal but endowed with beautiful tourist sites and a vibrant artistic community. Vast amounts of money are poured into festivals and contests such as the Israeli International Oud Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, PIC.NIC music festival, the International Harp Contest in Israel, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the “Israel Festival,”and more, like the upcoming Tel Aviv White City Music Festival.

The apartheid wall on the Palestinian side — A view of the wall as it comes right up near a home, and cuts a Palestinian village in half.

The Holon Woman’s Festival, billed as a showcase of women’s artistic achievements was to feature US Jazz artist Cassandra Wilson. Cassandra became aware of the cultural boycott and despite the media blackout on the truth about how Palestinians are treated in Israel, she became aware of their plight. This caused her to cancel her performances at the Holon Woman’s Festival. Cassandra joins a list of many artists who have chosen to side with justice. Among those are Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, over forty actors, directors and writers in the UK, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, John Berger and 93 other artists, and many more.

For a full listing of artists who are booked to play White City, see http://www.tlv-music.com/en/Artists. One artist recently stated via twitter, “You’re right, I was unaware of any cultural boycott, although certainly aware of the situation.” (Rock musician Scott McCaughey on twitter on 1 April). If McCaughey had been aware of the boycott, he may have been much less willing to play in Israel. No artist of conscience should desire to be a part of the strategy by Israel to normalize what can never be sustained. Apartheid.

SOURCE