Music played a large part in proliferating awareness of South African apartheid across the globe. End the blockade, end the Occupation, bring down Israel’s apartheid wall, equal rights for all, and recognise the right of Palestinian people expelled from their homelands by invading zionists in 1947 and 1948 to return to their lands as guaranteed by international law.
Join the boycott against apartheid Israel – stand up for justice and rights in solidarity with Palestinian people who struggle to achieve their self-determination.
In a first ever musical collaboration between South Africa and Palestine, South African band, The Mavrix, and Palestinian Oud player, Mohammed Omar, have released a music video called “The New Black”. The song is taken from The Mavrix’ upcoming album,”Pura Vida”, due for release in June 2012.
Written and composed by Jeremy Karodia and Ayub Mayet, the song was a musical reaction to the horror of the Gaza Massacre of 2008/2009 and then subsequently inspired by the book “Mornings in Jenin”, authored by Susan Abulhawa. Mayet had penned the first lyrics in 2009 after the Massacre and the song went into musical hibernation. Having read the novel, “Mornings in Jenin”, he then re-wrote the lyrics and the song evolved into its current version.
Haidar Eid, a Gaza based BDS activist and friend of the band, heard the song in 2011 and urged the band to do a collaboration with Palestinian Oud player, Mohamed Omar. He also suggested that the band do a video highlighting the collaboration between South African and Palestinian musicians and also the similarities in the two struggles.
The song was recorded by The Mavrix in South Africa whilst Mohamed recorded the Oud in Gaza and, although never having had the opportunity to meet, the musical interplay between the musicians so far apart illustrates the empathy the musicians feel in solidarity with each other.
Produced by The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (South Africa) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) along with written endorsements from Haidar Eid of PACBI, Omar Barghouti of the BDS Movement, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada and Susan Abulhawa, author of “Mornings in Jenin”, the song represents a message of support from South Africans, who having transgressed and crossed over their own oppression under apartheid, stand in solidarity with Palestinians who are currently experiencing their own oppression under Israeli apartheid
Out of these 22 were militants and 4 were civilians who were in the area of IAF strikes, but were not involved in the rocket fire.
Turkey’s PM Erdogan is adamant, correctly referring to the Israeli strikes as
“state terror,” saying that the Turkish people must “remember that Gazans are our brothers, and will always remain so.”
The use of the word “militants” by the media grates – Palestinians who resist their criminal Occupier term themselves “resistance fighters”. Far more courtesy is extended by the media to the fighters who challenge the Syrian dictatorship than Palestinian people who are entitled under international law to resist their occupier, including with the use of violence within the terms of the Geneva Conventions. The vast majority of Palestinian protest is non-violent – and this protest too is suppressed brutally by Israel. Perhaps the terminology differs not primarily because of any stranglehold the Israel lobby has on media perceptions, but because of western guilt, white supremacism, and the fact that Palestinians are seeking self-determination from settler colonial invaders who identify and are identified with the West. If the fake democracy of ethnosupremacist Israel was not associated with the West, no doubt Palestinians would be termed freedom fighters by the white supremacist western media too.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights says 70 people have been maimed by Israel’s attacks, putting further strain on Gaza’s hospitals which are frequently without power due to Israel’s vicious siege.
Kamal Abu Obada, the Deputy Director of the Intensive Care Unit at al-Shifa hospital, is constantly aware of the risks that the patients he cares for are facing. “For me as a doctor this is all very depressing. All the time I’m working to keep the patients alive and when the electricity is cut they are all at risk. If something happens to them my efforts were all in vain.”
The latest Israeli bombardment of the people of Gaza was opportunistic, switching media and the Israeli public’s attention from Netanyahu’s failure to obtain support from Obama for an immediate Iran strike, and as a routine pressure valve through spectacle – the regular maintenance of Israel’s fascist sociopolitical cycle, and possibly to escalate pressure for war against Iran [Netanyahu is now conflating Gaza into his Iranian nuke fantasy]. Israel’s military gameplayers would have known that their initial assassination of two Popular Resistance Committee leaders, Zuhair Al-Qaisi and Mahmoud Al-Hannani, would be met with rocket retaliation from an infuriated resistance who have lived under Israel’s gruelling closure – collective punishment of a civilian population – for 1736 days. For Israel’s Channel 10, the latest sadism is regarded lightheartedly as a football game.
Like flies to wanton boys are Palestinians to Israel. It kills them for its sport.
A JPost article ratchets up the awful dehumanisation of Palestinians, terming Israel’s strike as “mowing the lawn”.
“The systems are designed to protect military bases, even if this means that citizens suffer discomfort during the days of battle.”
Under siege, the people of Gaza have nowhere to hide, and nowhere to escape to, making Israel’s deliberate criminal attacks all the more terrible and malevolent. Death can arrive in an instant from an invisible point in the skies. The Gaza rockets are regarded as illegal as they have no modern targeting systems and thus whether intended or not, target civilians. Yet many of Israel’s military installations are located close to population centres. The people of Gaza do protest their incarceration by Israel non-violently, but who is there to witness their demonstrations? The people of Israel whose regime determines the lives and deaths of the people of Gaza, are remote. Approaching the apartheid fence means one is shot at by Israel’s armed-to-the teeth Occupation troopers. For most Israelis, and for the rest of the world who applauds Israel’s crimes, the Palestinians of Gaza are inconvenient lesser humans of the wrong ‘colour’, viewed abstractly and depersonalised on television.
Last week, I had intense feelings of foreboding for several days prior to the attack, and put them down to a possible scientific explanation – the intense solar storm due to irradiate the upper atmosphere. Now, I’m not so sure. Several times in my life, I’ve had similar sensations associated with premonitions of deaths of people with whom I have an emotional connection – a feyness inherited from my Scottish grandmother. I have been so discomforted I’ve been unable to blog till now about Israel’s latest war crimes, confining myself to social media. As I write I feel miserable, disappointed in the sum of the world’s humanity that Israel’s vile crimes are applauded openly. Hillary Clinton’s noxious hypocritical cheerleading is particularly appalling. Indigenous Palestinian people, like so many other Indigenous folks before them and still, have suffered many years of gross indignities, humiliations and lack of basic human rights courtesy of predominantly northern European invaders and their descendants. Israel’s colonialism and apartheid are crimes against humanity. Does a criminal regime really have a “right to defend itself”, its existing crimes, by committing more crimes? Are not Palestinians (and Bahrainis who also resist a tyrannical western darling regime), like Syrians, Libyans, Tunisians, or Egyptians, entitled to defend themselves from a criminal regime?
Initially the IOF attempted to sell its latest war crimes against the people it occupies as a strike back against perpetrators of the last year’s killings at Eilat. This calumny was swiftly exposed as propaganda by Max Blumenthal, Ali Abunimah and others.
Home Front Defence Minister Matan Vilnai confirmed Israel had reached an unwritten “understanding” with militant groups in Gaza.
“Apparently things are calming down and this round of confrontations appears to be behind us,” he told public radio.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak echoed him. “This morning the situation is relatively quiet,” he told reporters.
In Gaza, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the radical group was willing to respect the deal, but Israel must end its targeted killings of militants.
“We accept a ceasefire if Israel agrees to apply it by ending its aggressions and assassinations,” Daud Shihab told AFP.
Both parties warned the agreement would be shortlived if the other side stepped out of line.
“Our message is clear,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a conference of senior civil servants in Jerusalem. “Calm will bring calm. Anyone who disturbs it, or even tries to disturb it, will be in our gun sights.”
“Any Israeli violation requires a strong response by all factions,” said Fawzi Barhum, a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas rulers, who have been seeking Cairo’s help to restore calm.
The truce, he said, “was not meant to tie the hands of the resistance and its right to respond forcefully to the killings and attacks”.
News of the agreement emerged early on Tuesday after Cairo brokered what an Egyptian intelligence official described as a “comprehensive and mutual” truce.
“An agreement on ending the current operations between the two sides, including a halt to assassinations, came into force at 1am,” he told AFP, saying the deal resulted from “intensive contacts” with both sides.
But Vilnai denied Israel had agreed to halt the assassinations.
“Anyone involved in terrorism against Israel needs to know that they are in our sights,” he warned.
Senior Israeli defence ministry official Amos Gilad said the deal had been concluded with Egypt, without direct contact with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
“We have agreed to quietness on condition there will be quietness.”
No spokesperson from Gaza has been on any news bulletin I’ve heard. No name has been given to any of the dead in Gaza. No age, gender, occupation, personhood has been ascribed to any of those murdered. They are deemed non-persons, their deaths are not worthy of condemnation. Rockets are worthy of condemnation but not bombs. Potential injuries are worthy of condemnation but not actual deaths of actual people. Some politicians are ‘concerned’ by the violence, never calling for Israel to stop it.
Held under Israel’s Kafkesque, despicable administrative detention without trial or charge, political prisoner Hanaa al-Shalabi has “expressed her undeterred intention to continue her hunger strike, now on its 21st day, until she is released.” “An Israeli military judge postponed the decision in the appeal of Hana Shalabi’s four-month administrative detention order in her hearing today, 7 March.”
‘Hana stated that prior to her transfer to the court, a female soldier informed Hana that she would be conducting a strip search in front of the other female prisoners. After arguing, the female soldier agreed to conduct the strip search in the bathroom. After the strip search, Hana was told that she would be punished upon her return to Hasharon. Hana’s arms and legs were then shackled in a very strict manner.’
An OPEN LETTER to Sister Bliss follows. Ayalah Bentovim plans to play apartheid Israel for 2 concerts on 8 and 9 March. The concert was announced just recently, giving very little time for people of conscience to ask Sister Bliss to reconsider. Many of her followers, however, support the boycott of Israel and will surely hope that she refrains from playing, even at this late date. It is not uncommon for an artist to cancel just one day prior to a scheduled gig. Sister Bliss, this is a letter of support for you and solidarity with you if you do so choose to refrain. We know the pressure for you to play is immense. It takes a huge act of courage to do the right thing and cancel. Please do show us that you are a woman of principle and cancel.
Dear Sister Bliss (Ayalah Bentovim),
It has come to our attention that you plan to play in Tel Aviv on 8 and 9 March. We are asking you to refrain. Your Israeli fans may be progressive and liberal, but no artist performs in Israel without clear political implications. While many of your fans in Israel may be against their own government’s policies, it’s important to note that your gig would send a message that it is okay to conduct business as usual with Israel. Only a small minority of Israeli citizens practice co-resistance with the Palestinian people, and they support artists who choose to cancel their concerts in Israel [1], as a means of working towards a truly just peace, not co-existence in the current situation.
The non-violent approach is an effective way to end Israel’s crimes. The United Nations, despite numerous resolutions against Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, has not ensured that Israel is forced to comply with international law.
Maxi Jazz of Faithless spoke these powerful words on joining the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel, please heed them.
“All Races All Colours All Creeds Got The Same Needs.
Hi, this is Maxi Jazz and these are just some of the lyrics I perform every night with my friends known as Faithless. And this short note is for all fans and family of the band in Israel. It’s fair to say that for 14 years we’ve been promoting goodwill, trust and harmony all around the world in our own small (but very loud!) way. Ok. We’ve been asked to do some shows this summer in your country and, with the heaviest of hearts, I have regretfully declined the invitation. While human beings are being wilfully denied not just their rights but their NEEDS for their children and grandparents and themselves, I feel deeply that I should not be sending even tacit signals that this is either ‘normal’ or ‘ok’. It’s neither and I cannot support it. It grieves me that it has come to this and I pray everyday for human beings to begin caring for each other, firm in the wisdom that we are all we have.
We Come 1
maxi”
Roger Waters, founder of Pink Floyd, emphasised:
“Where governments refuse to act people must, with whatever peaceful means are at their disposal. For me this means declaring an intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government’s policies, by joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. This is [however] a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott. Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said:
“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory … Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong … to perform in Israel.”
Playing in Israel today, in violation of the boycott call, sends two messages:
The artist has chosen to ignore the Palestinian people’s call for solidarity through a cultural boycott. [2]
The musician is aware of and accepts that the Israeli Ministry of Culture will endeavor to use an artist’s name to legitimize and promote the current oppressive, racist, apartheid government through social media like Twitter[3], through press releases, and via the CCFP. [4]
Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, former deputy director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, stated “We are seeing culture as a hasbara [propaganda] tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between hasbara and culture.” [5]
Over 11 million people are oppressed by Israel’s violations of human rights against non-Jews. People were and still are forced from their homes, and made into refugees. Gaza was made into a crowded, Israeli-controlled open-air jail. The West Bank is surrounded by an apartheid wall and sprinkled with over 500 roadblocks and checkpoints. [6]
While Israel presents itself as a democracy, in fact it is a democracy only for Jews. Indigenous Palestinians, most particularly in the Occupied Territories, are treated as less than human. Palestinians, lesser citizens within Israel itself, are discriminated against by 43 laws privileging Jews at their expense.[7]
Please don’t turn a blind eye to Shabrawi and Ezz ad-Deen, the two Palestinian children whose story was recently featured in The Guardian [8]. These two boys lived through solitary confinement, interrogation, shackling of hands and feet, verbal abuse (“You’re a dog, a son of a whore” – is common), sleep deprivation, and threats against their families.
Please refrain from conducting business as usual, while much of the world has stood looking in horror at Israel’s policy of administrative detention.[9] Cancel for Hana Al-Shalabi, a young Palestinian woman who has been subjected to solitary confinement, abuse and sexual harassment during her interrogation and then ordered to be detained without charge or trial for six months. She has been in administrative detention for 2 years without charge.[10] She was released for a four month period then returned to administrative detention on 17 February. Now this bright young woman, in an extraordinary act of strength, is on a hunger strike.
Until Israel complies with international law, until the millions of displaced refugees see justice, please refrain from playing Israel.
We are a group, of over 830 members, representing many nations 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. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.
Professor Joseph Massad is one of the world’s great thinkers on the Middle East. His address is presented on Edward Said’s birthday, November 1, in 2011 at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
