To The Killers, Please Don’t Book Apartheid Israel

Don't Play Israel, The KillersDear Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, David Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers,

It is being reported by some media that you are planning to perform in Israel this October and we, DPAI, urge you not to book. The reports might be baseless (there have been many instances of false reporting of bands playing Israel even after they explicitly told the Israeli promoters that no money would buy their conscience), so please let us know whether they are or not.

We ask you, as musicians of conscience, not to close your hearts to the oppression of the Palestinian people. There is a profound moral obligation to refuse to play in Israel, and even though the financial rewards might be considerable, we sincerely hope you choose to act according to your conscience.

Last month, the esteemed Professor of Physics, Stephen Hawking, chose to publically support the boycott of apartheid Israel. He joins Desmond Tutu, Roger Waters, Alice Walker, Ahmed Kathrada, Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, John Berger and many others who agree that Israel’s system of oppression cannot be brought to an end without ending international complicity and intensifying global solidarity, particularly in the form of the boycott. On the growing list of artists who have joined the boycott are Faithless, Leftfield, Gorillaz, Klaxons, Massive Attack, Gil Scott Heron, Santana, Pete Seeger, Pixies, Tindersticks, Elvis Costello, Cassandra Wilson and Cat Power. They understand it takes a boycott to work for justice, and that “dialogue” or performing in Israel while also speaking out against it has failed.

You might want to read Professor Ilan Pappé’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” which is recommended reading on the website Mormon Matters. Pappé is also a strong advocate of the boycott of Israel.

Music cannot build bridges between Israel and the millions of Palestinians whom it oppresses. Bridges can be built through the boycott, as was the case in South Africa, with the ultimate result being that the rights of all people are respected.

The purpose of the boycott is to exert pressure on Israel to respect the rights of Palestinians, by ending its occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; respecting the rights of Palestinian refugees who are prevented from returning to their homes just because they are not Jewish; and abolishing institutionalised discrimination including more than 50 laws [1] preventing equal rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The boycott builds on a historical tradition of popular resistance around the world: from within Palestine itself to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Historically, boycotts work.

Roger Waters wrote:

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.[2]

Desmond Tutu has this view:

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.[3]

“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“.[4]

Today, due to the boycott call and its international magnitude, it is impossible for any international artist to play in Israel in a political vacuum. Your performance will be interpreted and used by supporters of Israel and by the state as an endorsement of Israel’s regime, whether you want it to be or not.

Billions of dollars are lavished on Israel annually by western states, particularly the United States and Germany. Taxpayers in those countries are in effect subsidising Israel’s violations of international law at a time when social programs are undergoing severe cuts, unemployment is rising, and the environment is being devastated.

Please join in the struggle to end western complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and respect the Palestinian-led call for cultural boycott.[5] This is not only good for Palestinians, but also good for those around the world struggling for social justice and against perpetual war.

Sincerely,
DPAI
We are a group, of over 1000 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.

[1] http://adalah.org/eng/Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/cultural-boycott-west-bank-wall
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desmond-tutu/divesting-from-injustice_b_534994.html
[4] http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article727749.ece/Tutu-urges-Cape-Town-Opera-to-call-off-Israel-tour
[5] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1047

Unplug Apartheid, Tinariwen, Respect the Boycott of Israel

Tinariwen of Mali is being asked in an OPEN LETTER to boycott the upcoming Plugfest in Israel:

Dear Tinariwen,

You have been invited to perform at a desert location in the Negev in Israel. Please watch this short documentary made in cooperation with two artists who fully support the cultural boycott of Israel: Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) and Alice Walker (Pulitzer prize winning author of the Color Purple) In the film, Jahalin Bedouin community members explain how the Israeli government plans to forcibly displace them yet again — the community was originally displaced to the periphery of Jerusalem from their historic lands in the Naqab (Negev) desert during the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Last May, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated:

The Committee is particularly appalled at the hermetic character of the separation of two groups, who live on the same territory but do not enjoy either equal use of roads and infrastructure or equal access to basic services and water resources. Such separation is concretized by the implementation of a complex combination of movement restrictions consisting of the Wall, roadblocks, the obligation to use separate roads and a permit regime that only impacts the Palestinian population (Article 3 of the Convention).[1]

Sadly, organizations such as the United Nations have done nothing to stop the fast pace of Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people, prompting the legendary Roger Waters of Pink Floyd to say:

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.

 A Bedouin woman looks on as Israeli soldiers demolish  her village of Al Arakib again 13/9/2010
A Bedouin woman looks on as Israeli soldiers demolish
her village of Al Arakib again 13/9/2010

Members of Tinariwen: Ibrahim, Hassan, Abdallah A., Eyadou, Said, Abdallah L., Elaga and Wonou, no international musician thus far has been able to bridge apartheid walls with their artistic talent, no matter how beautiful your music is, it won’t help stop the injustice. We can hope that you do not support the Israeli government’s policies, however if you play for the Plugfest, it will send the message that you are either unaware of the boycott or that you chose to ignore the boycott call made by Palestinian civil society in their struggle against apartheid.

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.[2]

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.[3] 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.[4]

Tens of thousands of Bedouin people have been forced off their land in the Negev where you plan to play to a celebratory audience. Even the grains of sand in the desert speak out with the sorrow the indigenous Palestinian Bedouin people have faced. Can you really participate in a celebratory festival there? We have included references [5] on how these desert people are struggling and fighting for survival below, we hope you will check them out even during your busy touring schedule.

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.[6]

Until the siege on over 1.7 million people in Gaza is lifted, until Palestinian lands are returned to their rightful owners, until the millions of refugees’ lives are restored with the opportunity for a future, the global boycott of Israel is going to continue. Please just decline to play Israel, don’t breach the boycott.

Warmly,
DPAI (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel)

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.

Notes:

[1] UN Committee 2012 Session Concludes Israeli System Tantamount to Apartheid
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5588/un-committee-2012-session-concludes-israeli-system
[2] http://mondoweiss.net/2011/07/lets-stand-with-shireen-al-araj-and-the-courageous-people-of-al-walaja.html
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/24/gaza-fishermen-gunboats-israel-navy
[4] http://www.btselem.org/video/2011/05/child-arrest-silwan
[5] Israel takes pride in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin villages Jillian Kestler-D’Amours Negev 9 October 2012
Israel plans to forcibly transfer 40,000 Bedouin citizens Jillian Kestler-D’Amours 16 June 2011
Israel finds new “home” for Bedouins: a garbage dump Jillian Kestler-D’Amours 28 October 2011
Israeli government approves plans to transfer 30,000 Palestinian Bedouin Mansour Nsasra 1 October 2011
[6] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

FC Barcelona : No Normalisation Between Occupied and Occupier

FC Barcelona: it is time to stop normalising Israel and maintaining a policy of equidistance
between occupier and occupied in Palestine

We have heard that the President of Barcelona Football Club, Sandro Rosell and the
Vicepresident Javier Faus intend to go on a “diplomatic and commercial” mission to Israel and
Palestine on 21 and 23 February. The two executives will visit the towns of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
and Ramallah, where they will have talks with the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, and the
President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Mahmoud Abbas [1].

BDS Catalunya and the rest of the RESCOP (Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of
Palestine) [2], made up of 36 Palestine solidarity organisations across Spain, are strongly opposed
to this visit because it merely serves the interests of Israel by presenting it to the world as a
“normal” country. Unfortunately the systematic breaches of international law since 1948 and the
constant unpunished violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people mean that Israel is
not a “normal” country. The military occupation, the colonisation measures and the apartheid
system
imposed by Israel in Palestine since 1948, are not policies proper to a “normal” country.

Barcelona FC has traditionally maintained a “neutral” and “equidistant” position in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict and has made an effort to maintain good relations with both Israeli and
Palestinian authorities. It has also promoted and financed joint sports activities between young
Israelis and Palestinians with the aim of contributing to “peace” and “coexistence” between the
two peoples. Inviting the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to the Barcelona football ground in September
2012 and subsequently – under popular pressure – inviting the Gaza footballer Mahmoud Sarsak
was a paradigmatic example the club’s policy of “neutrality” and “equidistance” [3]. But joint
activities between Palestinians and Israelis that ignore the fundamental rights of the Palestinian
people can only be called one thing: normalisation. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic
and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has defined normalisation in the 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.” [4].

Through its policy towards Palestine, Barcelona football club shows that it is still trapped in the
logic of the Oslo Accord of 1993 [5], which gave a strong boost to normalisation activities
between Israelis and Palestinians, especially in the 90s. But 20 years after signing these
agreements the dramatic situation in Palestine shows that, in spite of the huge quantity of money
that has been poured into them by the Western powers and Israel itself, these initiatives for
“peace” and “coexistence” have totally failed. Over the years, Palestinian society has gradually
realised that normalisation activities have only benefited Israel, since they have made it possible
for the Israeli state to go on implementing its illegal policies whilst displaying to the world the
efforts they are supposedly making to achieve “peace”. Nowadays, the immense majority of the
Palestinian people reject normalisation.

In 2005, knowing that only recognition of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people will bring
justice and peace to Palestine and inspired by the struggle against the South African apartheid
regime, more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations launched a call for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
against Israel [6] until it fully complies with the precepts of
international law by: 1) ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the
Wall; 2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
and 3) respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. The sports boycott against Israel is an
essential part of this international campaign for liberty, justice and equality.

This June Israel will host the European Under-21 Football Championship. In this way, the
UEFA will be rewarding a state that destroyed the Gaza football ground and assassinated four
children while playing football during the last military aggression against the Gaza Strip; a state
that arrested two footballers belonging to the Al-Amari club (Ramallah, the West Bank) in February
2012 and has kept them in prison since then under administrative detention that is to say without
presenting charges or giving them a court hearing; a state that has been preventing the free
circulation of Palestinian footballers for decades. For all of these reasons, more than 50 footballers
who play in the main world leagues have condemned holding this championship in Israel by
giving their support to a letter by Frédéric Kanouté [7]. In addition, a popular European campaign
called “Red Card Israeli Apartheid” has been launched and is gaining strength [8]. Recently, the
Palestinian authorities have added their signatures to the petition against this championship taking
place in Israel [9].

For all of the reasons that we have put forward in this letter, BDS Catalunya and the rest of the
RESCOP demand that FC Barcelona put an end to its normalisation activities and to its policy of
equidistance between the Israeli occupying power and the occupied Palestinian people. We also
urge the Club to reply to the Call made by Palestinian civil society and break off all relations
with Israeli institutions. This is the best contribution that the Club can make to a just peace in
Palestine.

BDS Catalunya
Red Solidaria Contra la Ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP)


[1] “Rosell viajará a Israel y Palestina en misión diplomática y comercial”
http://www.mundodeportivo.com/20130212/fc-barcelona/rosell-viajara-israel-palestina-mision-diplomatica-
comercial_54365317359.html

[2] Red Solidaria Contra la Ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP)
http://www.nodo50.org/causapalestina/

[3] “El ex preso palestino Al Sarsak rechaza ir al clásico”
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundodeporte/2012/10/01/futbol/1349080783.html

[4] Definition of “normalisation” according to the PACBI
http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1749

[5] “The Oslo 1 Accord” in Wikipedia
http://en:wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo 1 Accord

[6] Call from Palestinian civil society to Boycott, Divestment and Sanciones (BDS) against Israel, 9 July 2005
http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

[7] “Footballers condemn plans to hold U21 European championship in Israel”
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/footballers-condemn-plans-to-hold-u21-european-championship-in-israel-10120

[8] “Red Card Israeli Apartheid” campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N0mqdI1oNHA

[9] “Palestina hace campaña para que Israel no acoja la final sub-21 de la UEFA”
http://www.diariovasco.com/agencias/20130210/deportes/futbol/palestina-hace-campana-para-
israel_201302101207.html

The RESCOP is made up of the following organisations:

Acsur-Las Segovias
Asociación Al-Quds de Solidaridad con los Pueblos del Mundo Árabe (Málaga)
Asociación Andaluza por la Solidaridad y la Paz – ASPA
Asociación de Amistad Palestina-Granada «Turab»
Asociación Hispano Palestina Jerusalén (Madrid)
Asociación Pro-Derechos Humanos de Andalucía
Asociación Unadikum
BDS Catalunya
BDS Madrid
Castelló per Palestina
Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe (Madrid, Asturias)
Comité de Solidaridad con los Pueblos – Interpueblos (Cantabria)
Comunidad Palestina en Canarias
Comunitat Palestina de Catalunya
Coordinadora de apoyo a Palestina (La Rioja)
Ecologistas en Acción (Confederal)
Fundación IEPALA
Fundación Mundubat
Gipuzkoako palestinaren aldeko plataforma
Izquierda Anticapitalista
Komite Internazionalistak (Euskal Herria)
MEWANDO (Euskadi)
Movimiento Solidaridad Internacional Catalunya – ISM Cataluña / Valencia
Mujeres en Zona de Conflicto – M.Z.C.
Mujeres por la Paz – Acción Solidaria con Palestina (Canarias)
Palestinarekin Elkartasuna (Euskal Herria)
Paz Ahora
Paz con Dignidad
Plataforma de Solidaridad con Palestina (Sevilla)
Plataforma Palestina Ibiza
Plataforma Solidaria con Palestina de Valladolid
Red de Jóvenes Palestinos
Red Judía Antisionista Internacional – IJAN
Sodepau
Sodepaz
Sodepaz Balamil
Taula per Palestina (Illes Balears)
Xarxa de Solidaritat amb Palestina de València

Arutz Sheva’s Gutter Yellow “Journalism” Smears Stanley Jordan

Arutz Sheva INN storyThe online news service, Israel National News, has misrepresented the reporting on Jordan’s cancellation from this blog. A link to the story from the INN dizzying spin would have enabled readers to determine the truth of the matter. Is this too much to ask of Israel’s mainstream media?

On the 6th January, following effective advocacy from supporters of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, Stanley Jordan, who was to headline the Red Sea Jazz Festival at Eilat this month announced that he was cancelling his gig, apologising for any inconvenience caused.

With an embarrassing display of gutter journalism, INN implies that this blog reported Stanley Jordan as having had his “hayday [sic] in the 80s” bowing “to a cultural boycott by Arab sympathizers after initially chosing [sic] to honor his commitment and “hold a special event later on in the year to promote justice for Palestinians.””. Is Israel so far up against its apartheid wall that it now selects hasbeens to headline its Festivals?

Jordan is a major jazz fusion performing and recording star, who has played with the likes of Miles Davis, Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie, and who has developed a unique two-handed tapping guitar technique. He is also an academic specialising in music therapy. Sometimes the best therapy for dysfunction is to withhold music altogether.

Israel’s opportunistic government unashamedly uses all culture as propaganda – apparently it is not beneath its media propaganderists to misuse cancellations by principled artists after calls to boycott to misquote the messenger and smear the artist as well. Yet perhaps the headline of the INN story betrays how close the Israeli-government sponsored festival was to closing after Jordan’s cancellation.

Artists who still have not committed to cancelling their entertainment of apartheid at the Red Sea Jazz Festival and respecting the boycott are Erik Truffaz, Benjamin Taubkin, Marcelo Pretto, Jacky Terrasson, Yuri Honing, E J Strickland, Wolfert Brederode and the Motion Trio. To help persuade these artists to stand on the right side of history with the oppressed Palestinian people demanding justice, freedom and human rights, information for action is available on the Boycott the Red Sea Jazz Festival facebook page.

Thus far, artists who have cancelled their performances at this year’s Red Sea Festival include the Portico Quartet, Andreas Öberg and Stanley Jordan. Before the 2012 Israeli Government-sponsored Eilat festival, Tuba Skinny decided to refuse to play while in Rome en-route to Israel after receiving information about the cultural boycott, only a few days prior to their scheduled gig. Latin jazz great Eddie Palmieri of Puerto Rico and jazz musician Jason Moran of Houston followed Tuba Skinny, cancelling their appearances at the Festival. None of these artists have rescheduled performances in Israel to date.

Note to INN – this is the Kadaitcha blog, which publishes many different writers and sources, including @Jinjirrie. The story on Stanley Jordan’s cancellation from the Red Sea Jazz Festival was sourced from Don’t Play Apartheid Israel and first published on the Refrain Playing Israel blog.

Related Links

Stanley Jordan’s withdrawal, and the worldliness of jazz
On Educating Stanley : Analysis of the First 2013 BDS Victory
First Win for Cultural Boycott in 2013 : Stanley Jordan Cancels
Spirituality, Stanley Jordan, and BDS
Stanley Jordan, Please Respect the Boycott of Israel
To the Palestinian People – Against the Normalisation of Apartheid by Joy Harjo
Hasbara and the Case for Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel
Everything BDS: Stanley Jordan: Don’t Cross the Picket Line
BDS Switzerland asks Erik Truffaz to refrain playing in Israel
OPEN LETTER asking Érik Truffaz to refrain playing in Israel
OPEN LETTER to Yuri Honing: Boycott the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Apartheid Israel
Portico Quartet Respects the Boycott of Israel
2012 – A Great Year for Cultural Boycott of Apartheid Israel

Stanley Jordan – “Love and Light” Isn’t Enough to End Apartheid

Stanley Jordan: You Don’t Get to Peace without Real Solidarity

by Rima Merriman

After putting BDS activists through their paces for eight straight days of discussion on his Facebook page, noted Jazz musician Stanley Jordan announced on January 1st, that he had decided not to support the call of the Palestinian civil society to boycott the upcoming Red Sea Jazz Festival this month in Eilat, Israel.

In his announcement, Jordan referred to a “spirited online discussion and much deep soul-searching” but did not give a reason for his decision. Instead, he avowed his dedication to “world peace” and pledged to demonstrate to the many activists who had contributed to his Facebook thread with over 800 posts of information and considered arguments – including two messages from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott – that he had “heard” them and was ready to make others hear their impassioned plea. Jordan had concluded that that the best way “I could serve the cause would be to do my performance as scheduled, but separately organize an event in a major city in the United States to raise funds and awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people. The time frame will be in September or October 2013.”

Though not unexpected, that “conclusion” was problematic for many BDS advocates. The discussion on the thread ranged over a wide variety of topics triggered by Jordan’s questions. However, there was one central issue that kept rearing its head: What does it really mean to be in solidarity with an oppressed people?

Besides Jordan, some artists, like Native American poet and musician Joy Harjo, who are approached by PACBI and asked to heed the Palestinian people’s call to honor the academic and cultural boycott – that is, to stand in solidarity – too often arrogantly assume that they can demonstrate their support by performing in Israel and then gesturing to Palestinians through other means of their own choosing, for example by arranging for a parallel performance in the occupied territory. That’s an offer that PACBI, which is represented by over 170 civil society organizations and is growing in international support daily, categorically refuses. The list of artists who have respected the call includes Santana, Cat Power, Elvis Costello, Cassandra Wilson, Massive Attack, Jello Biafra, Faithless, Leftfield, Gorillaz, Pixies, Gil Scott Heron, and many more that have refused to play for apartheid and is growing.

It is well known that Israel utilizes international artists as part of a clear strategy of normalization to try and legitimize settler colonialism, occupation, and apartheid. “Branding Israel” is a propaganda campaign financed by the well-heeled Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to showcase a side of Israel more palatable to the world. PACBI asks artists not to be complicit in these state efforts by not performing in Israeli institutions. Those who do not heed the call often end up regretting their decision, as has been expressed by Macy Gray, Pete Seeger, Richard Montoya and others.

Jordan is now trying to justify his decision by expressing inchoate beliefs about the power of his art to achieve “world peace” by “changing consciousness” while propounding the notion that the boycott undermines the freedom of the artist and limits the transformative power he possesses over his audience. By doing so, he has elevated the status as an artist as though he is ‘above’ human rights. True change of consciousness comes when the privileged use their power to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, not in telling them how best to resist – as he also tried in his comments on Facebook.

At several stages in the discussion, Jordan outlined his dilemma: “This situation and the information I’ve received has really moved me, and I regret that we have this sticking point about the boycott being the only acceptable form of help.” Activists pointed out that the boycott is one of the most effective ways to peacefully protest Israel’s deadly subjugation of Palestinians and one that is called for by those being oppressed. But more importantly, they explained what an act of solidarity actually demands. Adrian Boutureira Sansberro spelled this out most powerfully in his comments to Jordan:

“Firstly, we are in solidarity with the oppressed, not the oppressor. Secondly, being in solidarity entails being able to take direction from those one claims to be in solidarity with. Learning how to take direction, as to what is it that those we are in solidarity with wish us to do, is a huge aspect of shifting the relationships of power between the oppressed and the oppressor. It is also a way to really come face to face with our own true commitment and power issues. To do as we wish, is not being in solidarity. It is practicing supremacist charity. I say supremacist, because even when people claim to be in solidarity, they refuse to relinquish their own power and privilege as individuals. They refuse to surrender their own interests. They refuse to recognize that the collective must always be greater than the individual, or we are not in solidarity at all. We are then independent actors who cannot accept taking direction for whatever reason.”

In the end, Jordan was unable to relate to the above careful and important distinctions. He remained stuck on the notion of “help” in the sense of charity – thus his proposed charity concert in the US. “I would like to work in alliance with those who support the Palestinian people and, in the true spirit of alliance, have it be understood that there may be differences of opinion on how best to accomplish that.” Many people told Jordan that he could choose to do his own thing to show a sense of empathy or “an alliance” with the cause (as opposed to what is being requested of him specifically), but they also explained that such a choice would not be as effective and would certainly not be in solidarity in the true sense of the word, which is why Jordan’s decision not to support the boycott provoked Sylvia Posadas, one of his interlocutors to write simply: “So sorry you cannot fully support Palestinian people at this time. You have not been requested to give charity, but support for their ethical choice of tactic. In time, perhaps you will understand what ‘solidarity’ really means.”

SOURCE

Related Links

Spirituality, Stanley Jordan, and BDS
Stanley Jordan, Please Respect the Boycott of Israel
To the Palestinian People – Against the Normalisation of Apartheid by Joy Harjo
Hasbara and the Case for Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel
Everything BDS: Stanley Jordan: Don’t Cross the Picket Line
BDS Switzerland asks Erik Truffaz to refrain playing in Israel
OPEN LETTER asking Érik Truffaz to refrain playing in Israel
OPEN LETTER to Yuri Honing: Boycott the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Apartheid Israel
Portico Quartet Respects the Boycott of Israel