Natalie Imbruglia Cancels Her Gig in Apartheid Israel

Natalie Imbruglia cancels IsraelAfter a solid campaign by concerned groups and Indigenous people, Natalie Imbruglia has cancelled her gig in Israel which was scheduled for March 1, 2017. The campaign was co-ordinated by Don’t Play Apartheid Israel with an accompanying Facebook page.

Natalie’s decision to refrain from playing in Israel is much appreciated, following the passing of a criminal “law” by Israel’s Knesset retrospectively “legalizing” theft of private Palestinian lands for illegal Jewish-only settlements. Recently, in concert with renewed bombing, Israel prevented anaesthetic gas from reaching Gaza, yet after international pressure, one shipment of anaesthetic was permitted before Israel slammed the Gaza prison gates shut for all imports and exports. Gaza’s civilian population has lived under brutal siege by Israel since 2006. Of 2 million Gazan civilians persecuted by Israel’s military Occupation, over half are children.

Gig cancelled http://www.songkick.com/artists/66427-natalie-imbruglia

Let’s hope Australian band Pond, UK-based Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Fat Boy Slim and Radiohead similarly revise their tour plans to exclude the apartheid state of Israel and respect the principled Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (BDS).

SUPPORT THE CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

Sign the petition to persuade Radiohead to respect the boycott.

Contact Radiohead
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radiohead
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/Radiohead

Contact Pond
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pondling
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/Pondband

Contact Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nickcaveandthebadseeds
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/nickcave

Contact Fat Boy Slim
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatboyslim
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/FatboySlim

UPDATE

In the JPost (12 February, 2017), event organisers are quoted saying Natalie cancelled because of “logistic constraints”, that she apologises and will reschedule.

Nevertheless, “Concert producers said refunds would be given to all ticket holders” and thus a reschedule is not expected in the near future.

The Israeli promoters of Natalie Imbruglia are said to claim, but not Natalie Imbruglia herself (who removed apartheid Israel from her tour without any comment on it being cancelled):
“Imbruglia apologized for disappointing her fans in Israel and vowed to schedule a show in country at a future date.”

No new concert in Israel appears on Natalie’s tour program or the promoter’s events.

3A Productions 2017 events

For updates see DPAI Page:
“Natalie Imbruglia, Playing Apartheid is a Big Mistake”

Clearly, by claiming the concert will be rescheduled the promoters facilitate the Israeli anti-BDS propaganda. This tactic has been used rather frequently. For example, when Pharrell Williams cancelled his July 2016 gig due to “scheduling problems”, it was claimed falsely by JPost he would reschedule.

Similarly, the JPost published in August 2014:
“American pop singer Lana Del Rey announced on Friday that her Tel Aviv concert scheduled for August 20 has been pushed back to another date due to the ongoing crisis in the south.”
“Those who purchased tickets for the concert will be notified of an alternate date. Organizers for the show said that the original tickets will be honored.”

However, two and half years later Lana Del Rey has not rescheduled.

For updates see DPAI Page:
Lana Del Rey, Don’t Endorse Apartheid Israel’s Violence

At Walla (Hebrew), “industry sources” allegedly are blaming poor ticket sales for Natalie’s cancellation. “Industry sources” also claimed Pharrell Williams’ concert was cancelled due to low ticket sales. Are “low ticket sales” yet another repeat excuse deployed to disguise cancellations made by musicians who decide to refrain from crossing the boycott picket line?

FURTHER UPDATE

The promoters, 3A Productions, are now claimingshe just couldn’t make it” and “she is busy, really busy“, not low ticket sales, for Natalie’s cancellation.

UPDATE – PALESTINIANS THANK NATALIE

Palestinian artists, cultural organizations and human rights supporters welcome the Australian-British singer Natalie Imbruglia’s cancellation of her March performance in Tel Aviv.

Two Videos: Ali Abunimah on the EU Settlement Move and Israel’s Pinkwashing Hasbara

Ali Abunimah, Guardian’s Ian Black and Israeli settler debate EU settlement rule

Ali Abunimah:

“This decision is somewhat limited. For decades, the EU has been complicit with Israel’s violent occupation of the Occupied Territories.

The settlements are war crimes and people who aid and abet the settlements should be regarded as war criminals.

This move starts to send a message.”

Responding to Fleischer:

“Interesting to hear the settler adopting a progressive language when he has admitted he lives on occupied land in East Jerusalem. He refers not to Palestinians, but in a generic way, to Arabs.


The EU … has said nothing as far as I know about ongoing ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of Palestinians within the so-called Green Line.


I’m reminded of the fact that at one point in humanity’s dark history, white slave owners used the bible to justify the ownership of other human beings, to justify slavery and we have these extremist settlers like Mr. Fleischer claiming that the bible gives them the right to bulldoze their way into other people’s land, other people’s olive groves, other people’s homes and living rooms and take them and to come on here and give us this sob story that they want to live in peace. And that’s why the whole world is against them.”

Ian Black:

“To some extent, the EU is responding to pressure from their own people.”

Fleischer duplicitously claims Indigenousness to the land. (Later he claims he ‘bought’ the land).

Ali Abunimah:

“Mr. Fleischer is a settler living on land illegally occupied by Israel in the war of 1967. It’s not his land. I could feel a connection to anything, it doesn’t give me the right to go and grab it and then say but I just want to live in peace. The whole world understands that, that Palestinians are being forced off their land so that settlers like Mr. Fleischer can enjoy it and have swimming pools and lovely houses. Right now as we speak tens of thousands of Palestinians Bedouins are being forced of their land in the Naqab in the south of present-day Israel in a process that has been going on for decades and the EU has been aiding and abetting this and dragging its feet. This step that we have been talking about … is a small step and if it’s a move toward tougher policies that Ian Black says, then good, but the reality is that Israel has been getting away with this for years and years.”

On the 17 July edition of Worldview on WBEZ radio, Ali Abunimah discussed the EU’s decision:

Pinkwash, Greenwash, Hogwash: A talk by Ali Abunimah from Albino Squirrel Channel on Vimeo.

Pinkwash, Greenwash, Hogwash: Ali Abunimah on Israel’s use of sex and marketing to distract from apartheid

All videos from the Homonationalism and Pinkwashing conference in New York

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The West Bank and Gaza are prisons and designated collective punishment zones for people of colour. They are the result of ethnosupremacists being permitted impunity to pursue people of colour, hunt them down, murder them, deprive them of rights, steal their land, property, culture and voice. In Australia there were missions, in the US and Canada, reservations, in South Africa, bantustans for Indigenous people seen as undeserving of their own homeland by settler invaders. Settler colonial Israel embodies and manifests apartheid, racism and genocide.

Israeli land thieves howl for implementation of the Levi Report to ‘legitimise’ settler outposts following EU affirmation of the illegality of Israel’s existing thefts in the West Bank.

Israel’s Response to EU Boycott: 1,000 Yesha Homes

Related Links

How Israel uses settlers to establish illegal beachheads on Palestinian land, which then provide an excuse for military fortification.

‘The settlers would not be able to terrorize their neighbors if they didn’t know they had the support of the strongest army in the Middle East, which can turn a village into a training site because it feels like it, or can turn into an armed gang at the drop of a hat. Without the army, the settlers could not exist.

And vice versa: without the settlers, the army would find it difficult to maintain its hold on the West Bank. Retreating from some godforsaken military camp is much easier than from a “settlement.” Throughout the settlement period, the army – allegedly a neutral body, taking its orders from the elected government – was a part of the land theft scheme. No settlement and no outpost were built without the army giving it, at the least, tacit quiet approval and often much more (not to mention sending its men to defend the new outpost).’

Non-violent resistance on the ground against Israel’s malignant expansionism in the West Bank through Festivals of Resistance.

Hafez Huraini, a member of the popular committee, explained what they hoped to achieve through the festival. ‘We want to send a strong message to everyone, Palestinians and Israelis, with our example: nonviolence is possible, is effective, and it is the only way to fight for justice, dignity and peace”.

One of the ways Nutanyahoo is executing his Bar Ilan plan is by declaring military firing zones on Palestinian land. Another is through lawfare. There’s a bill on the books to ‘legitimise’ even more outpost tentacles of Israeli expansionism in the West Bank. Why is Israel squealing hard about the EU moves against settlements? because the EU has directly assaulted Israel’s major strategy. What does Israel do? it immediately announces more settlement growth.

Delegitimisation of Israel’s ‘brand’, which is not just one of occupation, but also settler colonialism, racism, apartheid and neolib collaboration with imperialism is just one of the impacts of BDS. BDS attacks Israel’s prime strategy, tactic and goal – expansionism, but is still only a tactic, one part of a larger picture. This article seems to mistake BDS for a national liberation strategy. (FB)

This contemptible article highlights the essential bigoted nature of liberal zionism, with its anti-jewish stereotypes, even as it advocates boycott. Beware, folks, don’t buy Israeli bigotry, whether it comes from right or left, it discredits the human rights principles on which the boycott movement is based. (FB)

Why boycott can’t be limited only to Israeli occupation and settlements

Andrew Kadi:

‘It’s simply dishonest to perpetuate the myth that the settlements or the occupation are somehow disconnected from the Israeli state, the very government that funds, equips, and protects settlements, deploys its army to maintain its occupation of 1967, and that systematically discriminates against Palestinians who constitute 20 percent of its citizens.’

Nutanyahoo goes into supersonic whine mode

From IPSC: The EU stance doesn’t go far enough … the settlements are inseparable from the regime which administers and encourages them

Has the EU really caused an “earthquake” for Israel?

Israel’s social cohesion one of the lowest in the Western world

‘The main reason for Israel’s low standing is a lack of tolerance, lack of faith in political and social institutions, and a very low perception of fairness on the part of the Israeli public.’ (FB)

EU guidelines on Israeli settlements send out powerful message

‘This explicit restatement of the EU’s position is intended to force an end to the ambiguity that has helped Israel to maintain and expand its presence beyond the old “green line” border since the 1967 Middle East war – without incurring significant costs.

The EU’s “territorial applicability clause” spells out that there can be consequences for flouting UN resolutions and international legality. Not enormous ones, true, but they still include funding, co-operation, scholarships, research funds and prizes for institutions in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, whose population now number about 520,000 people. Ariel University, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, is one obvious target.’

Why does the New York Times sanitise the news on Israel’s illegal settlements?

Zionists growing ever more desperate to counter BDS. ‘Pro-Israel advocacy group JCC Watch is holding protests on the second Thursday of each month until it sees new guidelines that prevent the UJA-Federation of New York’s funding of activities that give a platform to activists of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, the JNS news agency reports.’

Zionist hasbaroid claims recent expressed fears of BDS in Israel will stymy the illusion of a peace process

Israel’s main fear is that the guidelines will jeopardize Horizon 2020

EU guidelines: a point of no return

Israeli banks may lose access to large loans under new EU rule on occupied lands

Israeli banks, businesses and public bodies will lose access to hundreds of millions of euros in European Investment Bank loans, under new European Union guidelines on Israeli settlements, Palestinian campaigners said today.

This could be the most serious impact of the EU’s decision to ban future subsidies to Israel unless agreements explicitly exclude the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip and Syria’s Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967.

Other Palestine/Israel and BDS Links

For Sydneyites – rally for Palestine on 17th August

For Melbournites this Friday – be there!

Honour to Madiba, on your 95th birthday.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians.”

Obama, while you support the Israeli apartheid regime you do not have any right to appropriate Nelson Mandela and his ‘the path to justice, equality, and freedom’ in any way.

Jewish South African paramilitary group CSO acts illegally and brutally.

Protest to Israel’s Prawer Plan land grab and expulsions has unified Palestinians in resistance.

Wits University appeasing zionists. ‘Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, is becoming embroiled in controversy. This morning, in what is being described by students as a blow to the values of “transparency and administrative justice”, Advocate J.A. Woodward S.C, who is presiding over the trial of 11 Wits University students, “kicked-out” and prevented both representatives of the media as well as members of the public from attending the trial after a submission of “prejudice” was made by Wits University’s legal representative, Mr Mothibi on behalf of the University’s Management. ‘

Magda Haroun, head of the Egyptian Jewish community: “Zionism is a racist movement that discriminates between people on the basis of religion. The failure to draw a distinction between Judaism as a religion and the Israeli state is the result of ignorance, which is to blame on social science curricula and teachers.” Well, it’s also the fault of the zionist elite, who deliberately spread hasbara to conflate Israel with all Jews.

“Palestinians stand with those who mourn Trayvon Martin’s death. We know what it feels like to lose loved ones and to watch the murderers evade justice.”

From Israeli citizens to Skunk Anansie: A Concert in Israel is Fu%^& Political! Boycott Apartheid!

‘You being the band who once sang “everything is fucking political”, we’d like to point out that a concert in Israel is patently political, not least because Israel openly and expressly uses music concerts (among other cultural aspects) to create a semblance of normalcy and a glamorous image in order to divert attention from its discriminatory practices, human rights violations and war crimes against the Palestinian people.’

Fatah: Israeli refusal of 1967 borders nixed Kerry’s plan

Maqboul told Ma’an that Palestinian leaders had reached a consensus with Kerry that for talks to resume, Israel must agree to negotiate on 1967 lines, release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and stop settlement building.

The Palestinian negotiators asked Kerry to present the demands to Israel. Fatah’s Central Committee, which met on Thursday to discuss Kerry’s plan, said the Palestinian demands must be met in writing and not just verbally, Maqboul said.

Alicia Keys, Don’t Fall for Apartheid – Cancel Your Gig in Israel!

Please respect BDS, Alicia KeysTweet to Alicia here to let her know how you feel

Dear Alicia Keys,

We urge you to cancel your plans to perform for a segregated audience in Tel Aviv on July 4, 2013. Palestinian civil society has called for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel’s policies of colonialism, occupation and apartheid towards the Palestinian people.

Israel’s attempts to hide systematic decades-long oppression and human-rights abuses against the Palestinians depend on its ability to maintain the facade of a progressive and democratic image in the eyes of the international community. Israel often goes as far as promoting itself as “the only Democracy in the Middle East.” Israel’s apartheid policies, however, even permeate events as joyous as concerts: Palestinian fans of your music living under the Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank or its medieval siege of the Gaza Strip will be prohibited from coming to Tel Aviv to enjoy your performance. These 4 million people who are being denied their most fundamental rights include many Palestinian women, whom will not have the chance to be empowered by hearing you sing.

Palestinian Freedom Riders challenged Israeli segregated buses on which they are not allowed to travel. These buses carry instead Israeli settlers to and from their homes, illegally built on stolen land.[1][2][3] The ethnic-supremacist state of mind does not end there, unfortunately, as evidenced by the Tel-Aviv city councilman who appealed to the state to allocate segregated buses for African refugees and migrant workers in the city[4].

Prominent figures (authors, professors, and musicians) have visited Israel, Occupied Palestine and Gaza to witness for themselves the treatment of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and have vowed not to lend their legitimacy to these crimes.

Alice Walker made the following comments on her visit to Palestine: “Going through Israeli checkpoints is like going back in time to American Civil Rights struggle…I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, absolutely the best way.“[5]

One of the things so painful to remember about the segregated south is that no matter what white people did to them black people were not allowed to fight back, not even with a word or a glance, hence the expression “reckless eye-balling” which led many a black person to be beaten or killed. The idea that the people of Palestine are not even supposed to fight back… To collectively punish them (by bombing and starvation) for electing their own government in a democratic election acknowledged by most observers to have been fair, is sadistic as well as internationally condemned as illegal.“[6]

Professor Robin Kelley offers this analysis: “My last book was about [the jazz musician] Thelonious Monk. … And so for people of my generation, the Israel-South Africa nexus, dispossession of Palestinians … these were the key questions for anyone politically active in the 1980s. … witnessed a level of racist violence that I hadn’t even seen growing up as a black person here in the States (laughs), I have to say, and I’ve been beat by the cops. The level of racist violence from the settlers is kind of astounding. … The key thing was the kind of engagement that helped us better understand why the boycott is central… 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.”[7]

The Palestinian people are denied elementary freedoms: the freedom of movement, the freedom to access their stolen lands and the freedom to protest injustice without facing brutal repression.[8] Those living in the Gaza strip (56% of whom are children) live under a debilitating siege, limiting their access to water, medical supplies, and construction material.[9] This unimaginable situation takes place only an hour away from your scheduled performance. In the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, 40 minutes away from the scheduled venue, children are being abducted from their homes, in violation of international law, and taken into violent police interrogations with no access to their parents or a lawyer.[10]

Representatives of Palestinian civil society, including over 170 different organizations such as women, academic and worker groups, have called for a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel’s policies. International artists are asked not to perform in Israel until it abides by its obligations under international law and reverses these policies.[11]

Some artists perform in Israel with the good will and intention to use their art as a means of changing Israeli public opinion and spreading the message of peace. One such example would be Roger Waters. These artists have later come to realize that their performance, as well-meaning as it was, has been hijacked and used to send a green light to the ongoing Israeli policies of oppression.

We have therefore learned that not performing is important to the promotion of justice in this region, as Israeli policy makers are coming to understand that the international community does not approve of their brutal policies towards the people of Palestine. Some prominent artists have stated:

Roger Waters: “In my view, the abhorrent and draconian control that Israel wields over the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), coupled with its denial of the rights of refugees to return to their homes in Israel, demands that fair minded people around the world support the Palestinians in their civil, nonviolent resistance. For me it means declaring my intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine, but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their governments racist and colonial policies, by joining a campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, until it satisfies three basic human rights demanded in international law.”[12]

Faithless: “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 willfully 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’.

Macy Gray: “I had a reality check and I stated that I definitely would not have played there if I had known even the little that I know now.”[13]

Cassandra Wilson: “as a human rights activist, I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel.” [14]

Understanding that the picket line has clearly been marked and that you cannot avoid taking a political stand on this matter, we are now asking you to take a moral stand. Please reconsider your participation in whitewashing Israeli apartheid. Stand against oppression and for liberation, against deep rooted racism and in favor of justice and equality for all.

Sincerely,

DPAI
We are a group, of over 1000 members, representing many countries 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.

Related Links

Sign the petition to persuade Alicia Keys to cancel her date with apartheid
Join and share the Facebook page Alicia Keys: Don’t Be Fallin For Apartheid, Cancel Israel

Jerusalem Development Authority Implicated in Boycotted Film Funding

In the vein of its previous documentary project presenting a montage of 24 hours of life in Berlin, the German Zero One film production company has been planning a similar venture on Jerusalem.

Berlin-based Zero One Film will work alongside Palestinian producer Daoud Kuttab and newly founded Israeli prodco 24 Communications. The latter is a joint venture between Israeli prodcos Pie Films and Inosan, which worked on the original version of HBO hit In Treatment.

Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and Jerusalem Film Fund are backing 24h Jerusalem and the producers hope to secure the remaining €400,000 (US$500,000) of its €2.4m budget at MipTV this week.

Palestinian directors have now pulled out of the project – they were unaware of the presence of the Israeli production company, nor of backing from the Jerusalem Film Fund, which is in turn funded by the Jerusalem Development Authority. Current activities of the JDA include expropriating Palestinian land in East Jerusalem for parks. The JDA received “40 million NIS in 2005 to develop green spaces around the Old City of Jerusalem”.

Designating urban space as a national park is not only easier but cheaper too, the state having no obligation to compensate owners.

The Jerusalem municipality leaves the creation of these parks to the National Planning Authority (in the Ministry of Interior), Bimkom noted, which deals more with the protection of nature and heritage than the rights of Jerusalem’s residents.

The disparity between the management of space for West Jerusalemites compared to their counterparts in the east is stark, with national parks notably absent from the west.

“The Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are crowded and they suffer from extreme neglect and shortage of public infrastructure,” Bimkom architect, Efrat Bar-Cohen, said in a statement.

“The residents are in desperate need of space by which they can improve their quality of life, even if slightly.”

The building of the park will have ramifications beyond the strangling of Issawiya and A-Tur residents.

It will stretch into the E1 area of the West Bank, which represents an important reserve of space for Palestinian development, creating a string of Jewish Israeli-only settlement between the Old City and Ma’ale Adumim settlement.

Elad Kandl is director of the Old City projects at the Jerusalem Development Authority, whose website describes their work as rehabilitating and conserving the Old City.

He expressed succinctly Israel’s aim of curbing Palestinian development in Jerusalem. “When you make it a national park,” he told The Jerusalem Post in reference to open space, “you keep the status quo.”

The JDA, which operates under the 1988 Jerusalem Development Authority Law, was established to further entrench Israeli control over the city and is also involved in the Jerusalem light rail project.

Indeed, the Prime Minister’s Office and the mayor of Jerusalem sponsored a JDA program to work toward this goal. On its website the JDA is very clear about the role of the Jerusalem light rail project, stating that “The investment in the light railway project was one of the government’s key strategies to empower Jerusalem as a capital.”

The JDA is also an instrumental actor in the proposed construction of 1,400 new housing units in the Gilo Jewish settlement colony, located near Bethlehem in occupied East Jerusalem.

In this light, the involvement of the JDA in the 24h Jerusalem project clearly designates the film as unacceptable normalisation with the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has defined normalization specifically in a Palestinian and Arab context “as the participation in any project, initiative or activity, in Palestine or internationally, that aims (implicitly or explicitly) to bring together Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (people or institutions) without placing as its goal resistance to and exposure of the Israeli occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.” [2] This is the definition endorsed by the BDS National Committee (BNC).

One Palestinian participant in the 24h Jerusalem project, Enas aL-Muthaffar, made clear his objections to the film project in an open letter on August 25th. He reveals that he was not informed at all about the Israeli production partner. Nor were the Palestinian directors to be involved in the editing process.

To whom It May Concern,

When Kuttab Productions first contacted me early July, it failed to mention that Israel is part of this project, although I specifically inquired about this issue. And then again, you sent me an email on July 9th, which also failed to mention that Israel is in fact part of your film production. I only knew about Israel being a co-producer of Jerusalem 24 when I asked specific technical questions about the characters, crew and the editing phase. I was surprised to know that the selected filmmakers are only requested to film on September 6th and that we have no say in the editing phase. Then, you said: The editing phase will happen in Germany where the Palestinian and the Israeli films will be edited in one feature length documentary. This is not information that can simply be passed on in such a way!

I reject to be part of Jerusalem 24: a German/ Israeli/ Palestinian co-production for the following two main reasons:

· I respect and support Palestinian civil society campaign for Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with International law and respects Palestinian rights.

· I refuse to be part of a peace propaganda machine that continues to ignore Israel’s cruel colonization of Palestine.

There is a longer list of reasons related to the current steps undertaken by Israel that aim at changing the demographic, social and cultural composition of the city of Jerusalem – to name few:

· Advocating the largest act of de-population of East Jerusalem since 1967.

· Continuing expansion of illegal settlements.

· Renewal of closure of East Jerusalem Institutions.

· Building restrictions and home demolitions.

· Revoking residency rights and denying family reunification.

· Continued illegal diggings under al-Aqsa mosque compound.

There is no way in which I can separate my art from who I am, from my life, from my duty to resist everything and anything that doesn’t acknowledge my right to exist on my land in freedom and dignity.

Regards,

Enas I. aL-Muthaffar

Enas’ stance is confirmed in an Al Akhbar piece [Google translation]:

Yesterday, I sent a group of Palestinian institutions and individuals working in the field of culture and art message to «Book of production» declare the absolute rejection of various forms of normalization with the occupier and «standing in the face of attempts to penetrate the cultural front as the line of the clash with the basic occupation, and intellectuals were and will remain the spearhead in the clash of cultures and civilizations with brute occupation force.

Haidar Eid further affirms terms of the PACBI boycott relevant to the joint film project [Google translation]:

That all meetings and projects that combine between the Palestinians and the Israelis must be placed in the proper context against the occupation and other forms of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, and most importantly that these meetings be pro-boycott by directives issued by the National Committee of the province.

According to Amira Hass, 20 directors, including Israelis, have now pulled out of the film project in support of the cultural boycott and filming, scheduled for September 6, has been halted.

Related Links

24 hours in Jerusalem without inside directors : Omar Barghouti comments
Daoud Kuttab is out of step with and misrepresents PACBI and directors’ reasons for boycotting this normalising film.

BDS Brisbane Walking Tour a Great Success

First Brisbane BDS Walking Tour a great success

August 30, 2012

Last Saturday, August 25 the first Brisbane Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Walking Tour was held, successfully highlighting a number of stores in the Brisbane CBD that profit from the products of Israeli apartheid. The Tour spent around ten minutes outside the Children of the Revolution store where a speech was given about the Naot brand of shoes. A letter was delivered to the store management by two BDS activists, after which the tour moved on (see speech and letter below). The tour also visited David Jones which stocks Soda Stream products, Woolworths which sell Eskal products and more, Myer centre which has a Seacret Dead Sea cosmetics stall and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The BDS Movement is a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience aiming to bring Israel to account for its apartheid policies and occupation of Palestinian land. The BDS call was launched in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organisations and demands an end to the occupation of all Arab lands and the dismantling of the apartheid wall; equal rights for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and the recognition and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return home.

The Australian newspaper has used to occasion of the successful BDS Walking Tour to publish the latest installment in their campaign against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. In an August 30 article by Christian Kerr in the Murdoch newspaper, BDS activists are portrayed as bullies and stand over merchants. In the face of the BDS Movement’s consistent exposure of the injustices perpetrated by Israeli apartheid, the campaign of lies by opponents of the BDS, like The Australian, is not surprising. They have to resort to lies and distortions because the truth is on our side – it is impossible to honestly defend apartheid and occupation and it is impossible to justify profiting from such inhumanity.

Justice for Palestine, Brisbane will proudly hold further BDS Walking Tours to expose those that profit from apartheid and occupation.

For more information and updates see www.justiceforpalestinebrisbane.org

SPEECH GIVEN AT ‘CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION’, BRISBANE, 25TH, AUGUST, 2012

Here we are ‘Children of the Revolution’. Unfortunately, there’s nothing revolutionary about this shop. In fact, its most popular brand is Naot Shoes, an Israeli company that actively supports the Israeli brand of apartheid.

According to its website, ‘Children of the Revolution’ is “dedicated to sourcing and providing the most progressively fashionable and functional footwear from around the world.”

Since when is apartheid fashionable or functional?

Since when is trampling on the human rights of an oppressed people fashionable or functional?

Well, at ‘Children of the Revolution’ it seems!

Naot Shoes was founded in 1942 at Kibbutz Neot Mordecai and is now one of Israel’s most successful exporter of shoes. 80% are distributed internationally, especially to the USA, Canada and Australia.

What is even more disturbing is that 66% of Naot Shoes is owned by Shamrock Holdings, the investment branch of Disney enterprises which is committed to Israel’s growth and expansion. It is involved in a number of illegal Israeli colonies and also invests in the construction of Israel’s wall which has had huge and negative repercussions on the humanitarian welfare of Palestinians and which was wholeheartedly condemned by the International Court of Justice in 2004.

Naot Shoes has a large factory outlet in the illegal Gush Etzion colony on occupied Palestinian Territory between Jerusalem and Hebron on the West Bank. The Gush Etzion block is occupied illegally by 70,000 colonists on land legally allocated to the Palestinian people in 1947.

The factory outlet store plays a role in strengthening and legitimising the Gush Etzion colony, providing employment for the residents of the colony and attracting both Israeli customers and international tourists alike to the area.

The systematic oppression of the Palestinian people relies on companies such as Naot and Disney. This apartheid regime – based on race and religion – forces Palestinians to live in small, prison-like areas divided by walls, military checkpoints and Israeli only roads. This, in turn, leads to poverty and a massive health crisis.

This does not sound to me to be “progressive and functional”.

In the 70s and 80s no-one who supported human rights or opposed racism, no-one with a conscience would have bought products from South Africa. And this boycott helped to bring about the end of the apartheid regime there.

We are in the middle of a similar campaign now – a campaign to end apartheid in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinian people are asking us to boycott Israeli products such as Naot shoes – just as the oppressed people of South Africa asked us to boycott South African products. As people of conscience we should listen to them.

When you walk in Naot shoes you walk on the rights of Palestinian people.

When you sell Naot shoes you profit from the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Letter delivered to stores stocking Israeli Goods as part of the first Brisbane BDS Walking Tour, 25 August 2012.

To whom it may concern

Your business has been identified as stocking goods that are under international boycott because they were made in Israel or in illegal Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories.

You may, or may not, have heard of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the State of Israel. The boycott call was issued on July 9th in 2005 by over 171 Palestinian civil-society organisations, who called on the international community to implement the BDS campaign against Israel. Inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the Palestinian-initiated BDS campaign is conducted in a similar framework of international solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression and calls for popular resistance through the BDS campaign until Israel complies with international law and meets its obligations towards the Palestinian people.

The international BDS campaign movement is committed to international law and human rights and demands that Israel:

  • Ends its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantles the separation Wall, considered illegal by the International Court of Justice;
  • Recognises the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
  • Accepts the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Since the beginning of the BDS campaign many businesses around the world have decided to support the boycott and remove Israeli goods from their shelves. National, State and local governments, church groups and community organisations have divested from Israeli business interests and international corporations that support illegal actions by Israel, such as the building of settlements and infrastructure on or through Palestinian land.

The treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been likened to the former apartheid regime in South Africa by respected former activists who were involved in the South African anti-apartheid movement (including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela).

In 1973, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the international Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which holds that apartheid is a crime against humanity. The word apartheid means separation. Apartheid is defined by the U.N. as “a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over another and systematically oppressing them by, among other things, creating ghettos; land confiscations; illegal arrests and detentions; bans on freedom of movement and speech and prohibiting mixed marriages.

We consider the actions of the State of Israeli meet this definition of apartheid, as do many other organisations around the world today.

We therefore respectfully ask you to stop importing and selling goods from Israel.

We are committed to ongoing mobilised non-violent action to support the boycott.

We have attached some information on the apartheid system in Israel and encourage you to read it and join us in acting in solidarity with the people of Palestine and supporting their legal and human rights.

Justice for Palestine (Brisbane)

Shop targeted for daring to sell Israeli shoes