In a move in support of human rights and justice, the New York Indie band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announced they will not play Israel. Israel’s “Walla” press reports the cancellation was political.[1]
If you’ve not yet enjoyed their music, watch their video “Heart in Your Heartbreak”:
The group was contacted by pro-justice activists.
Bandmembers Peggy Wang, Kip Berman, Kurt Feldman and Alex Naidus join other artists such as Roger Waters and Maxi Jaxx of Faithless who have chosen to respect and or advocate for the boycott. This year has already seen cancellations by afro-beat musicians the Tuneyards, blues rocker Cat Power aka Chan Marshall, as well as the highly respected French intellectual Jacques Ranciére, who cancelled his visit to Israel, in which he was scheduled to give public lectures in Tel Aviv university.[2]
The cultural boycott continues to grow among artists of conscience, as the PACBI [3] continues to gain support for its peaceful non-violent approach. The end of South African apartheid was fueled by a similar but tactically different movement led by some high profile musicians in the UK and elsewhere.
Day 65 of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike against the totalitarian, ruthless Israeli regime and its criminal system of arbitrary military detentions without trial or charge which contravene the Geneva Conventions. After 64 years of Israeli land theft, brutalisation and racism, Palestinian people remain steadfast – they will NOT be broken by Israel and in the end justice and humanity will triumph.
Khader Adnan, Bobby Sands
by David Rovics
Khader Adnan grew up near Jenin City
You could say he was a product of his time
Ever since he was a kid he’d get arrested
Though he was never charged with any crime
Spending half his life in prison
A life lived like so many of his friends
Arbitrary and indefinite detention
Never knowing if your jail time would end
Khader Adnan was arrested last December
Again he wasn’t told the reason why
He was shackled, he was beaten, he was tortured
There beneath the Middle Eastern sky
Perhaps there was a moment when he realized
That right then, with his body, he’d say no
But from then on he refused to eat another meal
Like in Belfast not many years ago
Khader Adnan grew up in a war zone
But all the tanks and planes were only on one side
It was a type of war that they call occupation
Settlement, removal, fratricide
And anyone who talked about resistance
Who thought they did not deserve to be a slave
Would be looking down the barrel of a gun
And often find themselves inside an early grave
Khader Adnan loves his wife and daughters
And he likes to eat his daily bread
But in prison he can’t see his children
Or live life with the lady that he wed
So on behalf of all the children without fathers
He decided he had to strike a blow
He said I will have dignity or death
Like in Belfast not many years ago
Each time Khader Adnan was arrested
In prison he would learn a little more
And soon he became the teacher
And he’d talk about the times that came before
They talked about civil disobedience
They talked about the ballot and the gun
They talked about the Occupied Six Counties
And the H Blocks in 1981
Khader Adnan talked of perseverance
And how someday their people might be free
How someday they might hear their children laughing
Unafraid, how someday things could be
And then at 3:30 on one morning
The soldiers came, their rifles pointed low
And they took Khader Adnan from his family
Like in Belfast not many years ago
They say Khader Adnan is a terrorist
Just like they said of Bobby Sands
Because he dares speak out against injustice
Because he dares to make a stand
Because he dares believe that he is human
And he does not deserve to live this way
Because he dares to consider an alternative
Because he dares imagine a new day
Khader Adnan lost his liberty before he was born
To fight for life it’s death he must embrace
But just like others come before him
There are others waiting to take his place
And even the great powers can lose interest
In supporting such a vicious status quo
Because you can’t break a man who won’t be broken
Like in Belfast not many years ago.
Respect to Khader Adnan and his family – let’s hope that the cruel apartheid Israeli regime delivers a rare display of mercy so the life of this heroic Palestinian is preserved. Khader is being held by Israel on no charge and without trial. The capricious Israeli military court has refused his appeal against arbitrary detention.
62 days into a hunger strike protest, Khader personifies the spirit of Indigenous Palestinian sumud, steadfastness in the face of overwhelming political malice – the collective punishment, colonialism and apartheid perpetrated by the ethnosupremacist zionist state.
According to Prisoners Rights organisation, Addameer, Israel currently holds 310 Palestinians under administration detention, including 18 Palestinian Legislative Council members. Free all Palestinian political prisoners now!
Physicians for Human Rights issued a medical report this week supporting a petition to the Supreme Court for his release. In it the group said that even though Mr Adnan had agreed to be treated with an infusion of liquids and salts, augmented by glucose and vitamins, he had refused to end his hunger strike and was in “immediate danger of death”. The report added that a fast “in excess of 70 days does not permit survival”.
The Supreme Court petition, for which no date has been set for a hearing, is the last judicial chance to save his life as Mr Adnan has said he will not end his fast until he is released from his four months of administrative detention. A military appeals court ruled this week that he must remain in detention until May.
‘Catherine Ashton, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, publicly sympathised with the family of Shalit at every conceivable opportunity, never acknowledging that the Israeli soldier belonged to an army of occupation and was taking part in acts of aggression against the Palestinian people when he was captured. Does she regard his life as more important than that of Adnan, a man in detention without being charged or convicted of an offence?
Is she more worried about the oppressor, than the oppressed? It would appear so.
Almost 12 hours ago, I contacted Ashton’s office, requesting an urgent explanation for her silence on Adnan’s hunger strike. I have still not received a response.’
‘To me, that emphasis on normalization is one of the more dangerous things, because if they succeed in convincing the world that this is not a state of war or occupation but rather this is really the heart of the kind of Western democracy that’s like the rest of the world, the Western world at least–then in some ways that’s how they try and win. And part of what the boycott does is it delegitimizes the claim that this is a normal situation. It’s not a normal situation, it’s a settler-colonial situation, a situation of oppression.’
This is the video of Ben White’s address to a packed hall at the launch of his new book at Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre in London on 26th January, 2011.
‘Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy’ is the new book by Ben White, and considers an issue neglected by the mainstream “peace process” and many commentators: the Palestinian minority in Israel.
What many in Israel call ‘the demographic problem’ White identifies as ‘the democratic problem’ which goes to the heart of the conflict: Israel’s definition not as a state of its citizens, but as a Jewish state.
With a foreword by Member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi, and endorsements by the likes of Prof. Ilan Pappe and Booker Prize-shortlisted author Ahdaf Soueif, White’s new book describes how a consistent emphasis on privileging one ethno-religious group over another cannot be seen as compatible with democratic values and that, unless addressed, will undermine any attempts to find a lasting peace.
For too long we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished.
Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many. You claim to be democratic, yet in reality this is far from the truth, in fact your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses. We see through the propaganda that you circulate through the main stream media and lobby through the political establishment.
Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many. As the world weeps, you laugh while planning your next attack. All of this is done under the veil of peace but so long as your regime exists peace shall be hindered.
You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as antisemetic. And have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust. You are unworthy to exist in your current form and will therefore face the wrath of anonymous. Your empire lacks legitimacy and because of this you must govern behind a curtain of deceit. We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies. Your grip over humanity will weaken and man will be closer to freedom.
But before this is accomplished the people of this world will rise against you and renounce you in all your worth. Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in 3 steps.
Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the internet.
Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation. And as for step 3, well think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you. We will not stop until the police state becomes a free state.
British Water has decided to cooperate with MATIMOP, an Israeli government agency that has been ordered to enter into international agreements and “aggressively expand opportunities for Israel’s industry”.
