Category: Palestine

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Nick Cave Takes the Red Right Hand of Apartheid Israel

Nick Cave in Apartheid Israel

Parading round the racist spoils,
white settler man groomed
to ignore bantustans,
compassion erased by genocide,
each word sung an arrow of malice
shot by the oppressor into
the hearts of the oppressed,
here is a cave wherein
light does not reach.

November 2017

Shallow Cave decides to play apartheid because he doesn’t like lists, and it’s all about him and his feelings of being silenced and bullied, never mind the cries of oppressed Palestinian people for justice and rights and several generations of colonial bullying by their zionist oppressors. With bitter irony, Cave will now be added by the Israeli hasbara machine to its list of artists which it uses as ammunition to continue its brutalisation and deprivation of Palestinians.

In his press conference statement, Cave complained about feeling cowardly for not playing Israel sooner, yet it is truly the coward’s path to side with power against those who are being crushed by it. Cave exposes his own white settler ideological origins.

“It’s no secret that Israel systematically uses performances by artists to normalise its racist, discriminatory system that oppresses me, my loved ones and every Palestinian.” Palestinian musician Rima Nasir calls on Nick Cave to support the boycott of apartheid Israel, or he’ll be used as a stick by the Israeli regime to beat the oppressed.

Dear @nickcave Are you seeing the refugee camps? The apartheid wall? The illegal colonies stealing land? Can you see besieged Gaza? Why won’t you hear #Palestinians?
https://twitter.com/DPAI1/status/931869972854341632

Is @nickcave taking a guided tour with a key ‘Brand Israel’ tourism agency, with a guide who just happens to have been a paratrooper on “the front lines” of major military assaults?
https://twitter.com/BFW_IL/status/931853247299678208

Israel’s cynical tactic of using culture as propaganda was promoted in 2005 by Nissim Ben-Sheetrit of Israel’s Foreign Ministry:

“We see culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between propaganda and culture.” (Ha’aretz; 21/09/05)

Related Links

Nick Cave – Don’t Play Apartheid Israel

Open letter to singer Nick Cave from the Gaza war protesters he once supported

Nick Cave: A Journey from an Anglican God to the Creative Christ

Apartheid Israel demonizes and pathologizes Palestinians whom it cages in the Gaza bantustan to “justify” its persecution of them. This is how genocidal settler colonialism propagandizes to obscure its criminality.

From Boycott from Within to Nick Cave:

“Your claim that somehow we have the ability, or the will to silence you is fallacious, and it rings careless in the face of the fact that Palestinian culture and heritage, along with its people, has been undergoing Israel’s erasure for the past seven decades. So successful was this erasure, that you neglected to mention Palestinians in your own statement, as if they aren’t the reason you felt you had to make the statement in the first place. As if they don’t exist.”

Nick Cave’s arrogant colonial stance is highlighted in the music press, sure to increase self-indulgent white supremacist shame, guilt and victimhood :

In response, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (a founding organization in the BDS Movement) has released a new statement. “Nick Cave’s performances in Tel Aviv and recent statement are a propaganda gift to Israeli apartheid,” they write. “We thank Nick Cave for making one thing abundantly clear—playing Tel Aviv is never simply about music. It is a political and moral decision to stand with the oppressor against the oppressed.” The independent initiative Artists for Palestine UK also issued a statement to Pitchfork, saying, “Artists for Palestine UK thinks it is Palestinians who are daily humiliated and silenced. It regrets that in a land of injustice, Nick Cave is giving comfort to the unjust.”

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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 claiming “she 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.”

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How to Grow a Garden – World Poetry Day 2016

It’s not that one has been forced to silence, rather that words have tumbled elsewhere than this blog for a while. Here’s a good excuse to restart this blog – commenting on the imprisonment of Palestinian poet, Ashraf Fayadh, jailed for “apostasy” for eight years and 800 lashes, his beheading sentence commuted by the vicious, tyrannical Saudi oilagarchy, best mates of the US empire and Israel, connivers in the oppression of the region and in particular, occupied Palestinians.

How to Grow a Garden

Mulch the Saudi princes,
jumped up hereditary popinjays
presiding over the ineffable infinite
as if they know it all by divine right
and can take it with them.
May the Saudi princes,
enemies of poets and truth
be deposed and decomposed,
words choking their greedy mouths.

Jinjirrie, March 2014

From Ashraf’s latest poem, written since he was jailed.

“I saw my father for the last time through thick glass,
then he departed, for good.
Because of me, let’s say.
Let us say because he could not bear the thought
I’d die before him.
My father died and left death besieging me
without it frightening me sufficiently.
Why does death scare us to death?
My father departed after a long time
spent on the surface of this planet.
I didn’t say farewell as I should have
nor grieve for him as I should have
and was incapable of tears,
as is my habit, which grows uglier as time passes.

The soldiers besiege me from all fronts
in their uniforms of poor color,
laws and regimes and statutes besiege me.
Sovereignty besieges me;
its highly concentrated instinct
cannot be shaken by living creatures.
My loneliness besieges me,
my loneliness suffocates me,
I am choked by depression, nervousness, and worry,
remorse, that I’m a member of the human race,
kills me.”

………………………………………..

For Fayadh from Gaza, Haidar Eid performs “Thirsty for Freedom,” adapted from a poem by the late legendary Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm.

………………………………………..

‘There are two ways opposite to each other, one leading to the house of freedom, the other to the house of slavery. Lead the people on the road that goes through courage and harmony; avoid that which leads through strife and ruin.’

Delphic Oracle (circa 7-9C BC)

………………………………………..

How many couplets do you recognise?

How many of these poets were oppressed for their visions and lived in squalid unhappiness?

Don’t wait till they are dead or imprisoned, treasure your local poets today!

………………………………………

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Ali Abunimah On Gaza and BDS, 1 Year After Israel’s Last Massacre

At present, Ali Abunimah is in France, speaking in Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon, marking 10 years since the advent of the 2005 BDS call and “the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza that killed more than 2,200 people and devastated the territory”.

Ali Abunimah speaks on why there has been no reconstruction in Gaza, about the total impunity Israel enjoys, highlighting that there are no consequences for Israel’s continued blockade because of almost no pressure from outside world.

Here’s some points which Ali made in the interview.

“It’s very easy to criticise the inmates of a prison for their behaviour within the cell.”

“As there has been no reconstruction, many Palestinians have died in the Mediterranean trying to flee the devastation in Gaza.”

“Israel with total impunity continues to take land, build illegal settlements.”

“Palestinians have a right to resist military occupation, whether they are from Hamas or other as the French resisted in World War 2, as others have resisted, Palestinians have a right to resist.”

“People say “you should not launch rockets” …the point is that particularly Europe, is treating Palestinian resistance as if it’s illegal.”

“The point I’m making is that when you talk about a people living under occupation as ‘terrorists’, and you greet the occupiers, the oppressors, at the Elysees Palace or in Buckingham Palace, you are sending a moral message that occupation and apartheid is OK.”

“I don’t recognise that any state, whether it’s Israel or France or a future Palestine, has a right to discriminate against people based on their religion or ethnicity, so I don’t recognise any legitimate Israeli claim Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state because that is by definition discriminatory against Palestinians.”

“The reason Israel is talking about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as a strategic threat is because Israel recognises that the movement pushing for equality, for a fundamental change, is going mainstream.”

Video first posted at Electronic Intifada