Month: February 2012

February 28, 2012December 11, 2020

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi at Israeli Apartheid Week, London

Nostalgic for South African apartheid, Afrikaaner settlers convert to Judaism, move to Israel to enjoy disgraceful apartheid privileges again in the West Bank at the expense of Indigenous Palestinians.

The judge ruled that the lawsuit, brought by opponents of the boycott, violated a Washington State law designed to prevent abusive lawsuits aimed at suppressing lawful public participation. The court said it would award the defendants attorneys’ fees, costs, and levy sanctions against the plaintiffs.

While the lawsuit was brought by several individuals against present and former members of the Olympia Food Co-op Board, it was planned in collusion with StandWithUs, a national anti-Palestinian organization, working with the Israeli government, an Electronic Intifada investigation revealed last September.
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According to live tweets of the judge’s statement by Anna-Marie Murano, on behalf of the Palestine Freedom Project the judge found that BDS was “nationally recognized.”

February 25, 2012December 11, 2020

Omar Barghouti on BDS at the Palestine Center

“Any self-respecting liberal should be able to support the principles of freedom, justice and equality anywhere in the world.”

“Israel does not represent all Jews in the world and they are not a monolithic group.”

“Apartheid is a universal crime.”

“Whether exiled Palestinians want to return to Palestine, it is their inalienable right to do so.”

“Cultural boycott has grown rapidly with many artists refusing to tour in Israel.”

“Peace to the oppressed is meaningless without JUSTICE.”

“Churches and Mosques have been co-opted by the Israelis and used as cattle barns, bars, etc.”

“Self determination = ending all three forms of Israeli oppression”.

“11.22 million Palestinians in the world. 69% of the population are refugees”.

“Equality or nothing!” -Edward Said .”

“93% of the land in Israel is for Jews only”.

“At the very least, do no harm. Remove your support for Apartheid.” “Refuse to support evil.”

(I asked via @USACBI “would you please ask Omar whether he thinks the increased mobilisation by Israel against BDS is measure of effectiveness? and whether he sees any other signals from Israel as to the effectiveness of BDS?”)

“Israeli anti-boycott law shows Israel sees boycott as threatening & drops last vestiges of true democracy.”

“Israel cannot bomb ideas and morals into submission, which is why Palestinians should maintain the moral high ground”.

My comment: not taking a firm stand against all bigotry, prejudice and racism is cognitively dissonant with any movement grounded in human rights and discredits such a movement. It is the argument which is necessary to attack, rather than make speculation about behaviour. Personal attacks are always poor fallacious substitutes for argument.

Related Links

Omar Barghouti at the University of Maryland: “BDS is not a central command, it’s not a political party — it’s a global rights movement,” Barghouti said. “At the core of this is our deep belief that moral right can and should prevail over military might.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Israel and the Palestinians: public opinion and public policy in Australia

February 23, 2012December 11, 2020

Israeli Government Flaunts Guns N’ Roses

The State of Israel’s official twitter channel *, maintained by the Foreign Ministry’s Digital Diplomacy Team has already claimed Gun N’ Roses as their trophy in support of metalwashing Israel, and tickets have not yet gone up for sale.

Metalwashing?

The trend to attract metal bands to play in Israel is not new. I’m going to take some credit for coining this little-known term. The concept was gleaned from the “pinkwashing” term, which has gone mainstream. Similar to “pinkwashing,” “metalwashing” is a way for Israel to gain acceptance through reaching out to metal fans. The number of heavy metal bands that have taken a liking to Israel and shut their eyes to Israel’s war crimes, human rights abuses, and violation of international law is growing. Apartheid Israel appears to have strong support from some metal bands. The question is, why? (I’ll leave you to ponder that)
The growing BDS movement continues to ask metal bands to cancel, and the Israeli-led co-resistance movement was prompted to write a letter entitled “A letter to all metal bands,” asking them to refrain from playing in the apartheid state. Sixteen Israelis signed the letter. The only metal band so far to cancel has been August Burns Red. [wpml_mailto email=””]Message me if this needs updating.[/wpml_mailto]

Here’s a partial list of bands whom have screamed, distorted their amps, and wore a lot of black for the stages of Tel Aviv:

Napalm Death, Metallica, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Linkin Park, and Ozzy Osbourne.

Looking ahead, Guns N’ Roses, Scorpions, Opeth and Dark Tranquility plan to play this year and Lamb of God plans to return.

Israel uses music as nationalist propaganda — This photo was published in the Israeli media - every international band breaching the boycott is understood by Israelis as making a political statement in support of Israel and disregard to the REPRESSION of the Palestinians. (photo credit to http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.206743196078219.51406.182828985136307&type=3 )

Metalheads Against Apartheid

A central place to get information on metal bands being asked to cancel Israel is on facebook at “Metalheads Against Apartheid.” The best place to learn about the cultural boycott is at www.pacbi.org

You can join Guns N’ Roses: No Appetite for Apartheid! Don’t Play Israel on Facebook or tweet Guns N’ Roses at @gunsnroses to register your thoughts about the Israeli government’s brazen use of Guns N’ Roses to metalwash apartheid.

SOURCE

UPDATE

Palestinian Israeli support band for Napalm Death and Arch Enemy was Chaos of Nazareth.

He recalls how Napalm Death had played that night. How, between songs, Barney had stopped and shouted to the crowd: “Now, go and tear down that wall”, or something like that, referring to the separation barrier that cuts off the West Bank from Israel. The crowd were shouting back and had their middle fingers up and suddenly —seeing me still smiling — Feras looks at me deadly serious and says: “This is not funny. They were shouting Death to Arabs.”

Napalm Death walked off stage after that, Feras says, and as they headed on to the next stage on the tour, maybe it left a sour taste, who knows. Chaos of Nazareth, meanwhile, go on. Like over 1.5 million of Israel’s population, the band are Arabs with Israeli citizenship, residents of cities like Nazareth which are primarily Arab but became part of Israel in 1948, as the Jewish army pushed east in the war that followed the declaration of an Israeli state. Arab Israelis now number among twenty per cent of Israel’s population and while life is more tolerable for them than the Palestinians cut off in the West Bank or Gaza, it is far from easy.

“As a Palestinian, as an Arab inside this country, I don’t have all my rights. When I go to airports, I get stopped and I know why. I see the people who are passing through and they are not Arabs,” says Feras. “And when we are standing on the stage, looking around at the crowd, I know that when I turn my back people are talking.”

….
“When some people got to know that we were playing with Lamb of God, they started talking to their manager and saying why don’t you get an Israeli band? Like we are not Israelis,” Feras says, with a good humoured but slightly exhausted laugh. “The manager called me and said: ‘Feras, you have no f***ing idea where you are living.’ He said he had calls from more than twenty managers urging him not to let us play.’

February 22, 2012December 11, 2020

Cassandra Wilson Identifies With the Cultural Boycott of Israel

In a stunning act of solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement [BDS], Cassandra Wilson has cancelled her gig at the Holon International Women’s Festival in apartheid Israel from February 22 – 25 saying

“As a human rights activist I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel”.

The Festival says it will sue – yet instead it could direct its ire toward the apartheid Israeli regime against which BDS is the tactic chosen by Palestinian civil society with the international grassroots community in solidarity, since the international political community has failed to enforce 35 UN Security Council resolutions against Israel or prosecute it for its horrendous contraventions of the Geneva Conventions and crimes against humanity of apartheid, colonialism and collective punishment.

Ynet reports on the Festival’s promoter’s reaction to the cancellation (translation from Hebrew):

During the conversation, there was no time to be angry because we were in a state of crisis management and had only a few hours until Cassandra was supposed to board a train to the airport. These were hours of decision and the conversation was pertinent. She sent me examples of emails she received and my impression was that it was just a vocal minority.
I told her that in recent years the rate of tours of A-list artists in Israel is only increasing, and I gave as an example among others, Madonna, who will open her national tour and Guns N’ Roses announced their arrival. Everyone who was and will be here exercises deliberation and beyond that her decision is puzzling, because the subject never came up in the past and she is not a girl but an active artist who chose enter a contract with us and has already received full payment.
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“The festival is not less good without Cassandra Wilson.”

Cassandra is a highly celebrated performer who was to frontline at the Holon Festival:

The 56- year-old, two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist has delved into numerous musical areas over the last three decades, including jazz, blues, pop, country music and folk. She has released over 20 albums under her own name and recorded and performed with a wide range of artists, including celebrated jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, pop crooner Elvis Costello and R&B and soul singer Luther Vandross.

You can express your appreciation of Cassandra’s act of solidarity by tweeting her at @reallycassandra or send a message here.

Cassandra was contacted by BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within and many tweeters to alert her to the nature of and need for the BDS campaign for justice and rights for Palestinians.

With Cassandra’s cancellation, there’s now been four acts which have pulled out from their gigs already this year, the others being tUnE-yArDs, Cat Power and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

2012 is shaping up to be a great year for BDS cultural boycott wins – BDS is snowballing!

UPDATE 22/2/12

Israeli racists are now tweeting threatening, abusing messages to Cassandra Wilson.

@reallycassandra replies to one apartheidist tweeter: “you are sadly mistaken, ill-informed, and ignorant. I am closer to being a Semite than you will ever be. Racist? Impossible.” #

Another tweeter invokes the flawed and discredited EUMC working definition of antisemitism.

Other tweeters slam the cancellation as being one at Palestinian request, ludicrously and hypocritically calling for a boycott against her even whilst condemning the legitimate BDS call.

Haaretz profiles Cassandra’s cancellation:

Grammy-winning jazz singer Cassandra Wilson has called off her scheduled concert in Holon tonight, after receiving requests from pro-Palestinian activists asking that she join an artistic boycott of Israel.
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Tuesday morning’s surprising last-minute cancelation comes months after Wilson signed a contract to perform in Israel ? but only one day after she received full payment for her scheduled appearance, according to the director of the Holon Theater, Guy Telem.

Telem says he spoke with Wilson at length on Tuesday in an attempt to convince her not to cancel the appearance.

“Her first explanation was that she read recently about Israel’s intention to attack Iran and she feared for her safety and the safety of her people,” said Telem. He recommended she speak with official agencies in Israel and the United States to inquire about whether there were any official travel warnings, rather than relying on media reports. He also said such warnings have been in the media for months, including well before she signed the contract to travel to Israel.

Wilson later admitted that her decision stemmed from a desire to support Palestinians’ civil rights, Telem said.

Telem said he asked Wilson whether she actively supported the Palestinian cause before pro-Palestinian activists approached her about canceling tonight’s concert; Wilson had no answer, he said.

For legal reasons, Wilson refused to disclose the names of the groups that approached her, said Telem.

Haaretz then interprets and insinuates rather than reports:

It seems that she pulled a fast one and the singer’s manager has agreed to refund only part of the money as of now, he said. But the damage done to the festival is much greater than just her appearance fee and the damage to the theater’s reputation; there is also the matter of compensating the public and other large expenses related to the appearance.
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart canceled a performance in Israel in recent months, citing political reasons, and took on a more profitable deal in Malaysia instead.

The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee met at the beginning of the month to discuss the boycott. It establisheded a special subcommittee to look into how to compensate Israeli promoters in the cases of politically motivated cancelations. The subcommittee is supposed to present its recommendations within 90 days, but no progress has yet been made.

While many artists have canceled appearances in Israel over the past few years for political reasons, it seems that many only develop their political awareness on the matter after they sign the contracts to perform. Promoters are now introducing clauses to protect against such cancelations, stipulating that the artist is aware of possible political pressure to cancel their appearance.

The promoters might also make the performers aware of the highly developed and well-funded duplicitous Israeli propaganda campaigns which attempt to convince artists to perform regardless of the global boycott movement, along with a full kit explaining why Israel is an apartheid, racist, settler colonial entity and why so many artists of conscience have decided to support the boycott.

… a coalition of artists — Artists Against Apartheid — called for a comprehensive boycott against CCFP, which they categorized as a “complicit propaganda institution seeking to normalize Israeli apartheid and strongarm entertainers into its service.”

CCFP is also closely linked to StandWithUs (SWU), a US-based pro-Israel and anti-boycott organization devoted to expanding Israeli propaganda on US college campuses and crushing Palestine solidarity activism in local communities. As The Electronic Intifada reported, SWU has tight ties with the Israeli government to combat BDS.
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As much money and effort that Israeli lobby groups are pouring into these propaganda ventures to battle the expanding BDS movement, it is a clear indication that they’re feeling the heat. With groups such as CCFP, AIEF, the Jewish Federations of North America and their public relations wing, the Jewish Community Relations Council, pouring millions of dollars into desperate attempts to stifle and censor Palestinian voices and the BDS movement, the BDS activism community will continue to hold Israel and its enablers accountable, from Tel Aviv to Hollywood.

Tweets of Support for Cassandra’s Cancellation

Please click to enlarge

DOUBLE HAPPINESS

Khader Adnan ends his steadfast 66 day hunger strike against Israeli arbitrary military detention without charge or trial. There are currently 309 Palestinians held illegally by Israel in this manner.

February 20, 2012December 11, 2020

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Cancel Apartheid Israel

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.

[1] The Pains of Being Pure At Heart dismissed for political reasons
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&langpair=auto%7Cen&rurl=translate.google.com&tbb=1&u=http://e.walla.co.il/%3Fw%3D%252F6%252F2509963&usg=ALkJrhg9BlEd4I6ePpoln6_co901s_K56Q
[2] Jacques Ranciére cancelled his visit to Israel http://thesip.org/2012/01/ranciere-cancellatio/
[3] PACBI http://www.pacbi.org/

SOURCE