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CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF
ISRAEL
While Israeli artists have the freedom to express themselves and
exhibit freely around the world, the artistic talent of Palestine is
wasted by illegal occupation and apartheid, curfew, imprisonment and
attack, in refugee camps and exile.Cultural life struggles for
survival and development under attack and siege.
The cultural boycott exists as a way to express people's growing
outrage over Israeli occupation and war crimes and the British
government's failure to act ethically. Its a peaceful means of
putting international pressure on the state of Israel. If
politicians won't act people must!
A call from Palestinian
Artists
To the international community of artists, intellectuals and
academics
We address you from the devastated heart of Palestine where the
Israeli army has laid waste to our towns, villages and refugee
camps. Claiming that it invaded our land in order to root out
terrorism, General Sharon’s army in effect systematically tried to
destroy everything about our society that made it function. This
was no ordinary colonial raid: it was an attempt, using the
ultimate in freely supplied American offensive technology, to
reduce Palestinian life to zero, the life of a dispossessed and
stateless people equipped neither with an army nor defenses
against tanks, attack helicopters, F-16 jets.
In this offensive thousands of homes were destroyed, as were
the electrical, water and telephone systems. Every major office
and civil installation was summarily entered, ransacked, pillaged,
and records removed, including the ministries of Education,
Culture, Health, and Civil Affairs. Archeological and cultural
heritage sites were callously destroyed. Cultural and Art centers
barbarically vandalized, musical instruments broken, paintings
damaged, and artists detained; the aim was to set back Palestinian
life by at least a generation, to make it unviable, to render
Palestinian national and cultural existence on Palestinian land
untenable.
Hundreds were brutally killed; thousands led off to uncertain
futures in secret tribunals, torture and detention centers.
Palestinians were treated like dehumanized, lesser creatures.
Refugees were made refugees for the 2nd or 3rd time. Ambulances,
and aid workers were either shot at or prevented from reaching the
wounded. Dozens bled to death, corpses callously left to rot in
the ruins created by bulldozers and tanks.
And yet the Palestinian people has not been broken, its
struggle continues its resolve strengthned.
We call on members of the international community of artists,
academics and performers to show their moral disapproval for
Israeli violation of the laws of war and the Geneva Convention by
not coming to perform, attend conferences, or give lectures.
Israel can no longer claim to be an enlightened state when its
armies rampage across the land of a colonized and occupied people.
To pretend that business as usual is possible while Israel is
still actively involved in terrible aggression and destruction is
to give it support where only condemnation is warranted.
Boycott Israel so long as it violently denies Palestinian self
- determination and occupies Palestinian lands. Express your
disapproval as a constituency of conscience by refusing to lend
your name and presence in support of colonial practices and
inhuman behavior. The cause of justice and humanity requires your
support:
Do not look the other way while evil is being done.
The Network of Palestinian Art Centers
Remember the boycott against South African racist apartheid, now
its time to boycott Israeli racist zionism.
"I've been very distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it
reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa.
I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and
roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers
prevented us from moving about ... If apartheid ended, so can the
occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will
have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is
the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that
direction."
"Apartheid in the Holy Land," Nobel Peace Prize winner
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Observe a cultural boycott until Israel ends the occupation
and its racist state terrorism. It happened with South Africa and it
will happen with Israel.
Below we will update details of forth comming cultural events
featuring israeli participation. Contact details, sample protest
letters, etc. will be provided - the rest is up to you.
Art Exhibition:
Art Now - Ori
Gersht:Afterglow
25 May - 26
August 2002
Tate Britain, Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG
Level 2
Open every day 10.00 -
17.50
Admission
free
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Contact
Details for Tate Britain
- Telephone: 020 7887 8008
(international +44 20
7887 8008)
- Feedback Form (they say they will
reply to you personally within 2 weeks)
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Tate Britain is currently hosting an exhibition by Israeli
artist Ori Gersht. We urge you to write letters of protest to
the Tate - a sample letter is provided below.
Background Information (from the programme guide):
"Ori Gersht will present a new series of photographs and
his first video work. In both he explores the landscape and
history of his birthplace, Israel....
Ori Gersht was born in Tel Aviv in 1967. Recent
exhibitions include White Noise, Noga Gallery of
contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, and Galerie Martin Kudlek,
Cologne, 2001; and Pitch, Chisenhale Gallery, 2000. In May
2002, his work will be the subject of a major solo
exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Gersht
will be exhibiting his Mass Culture series at the Andrew
Mummery Gallery from 22 May - 22 June 2002, and later this
year The Knowledge Factory series will be exhibited in
Reality Check, a touring exhibition organised by The British
Council and the Photographers' Gallery"
Sample Letter:
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Dear Sir / Madam
I am appalled to see you hosting an exibition by an
Israeli artist (Ori Gersht - Afterglow) at a time when
Palestinian artists have no freedom, their artistic
talent being crushed under the brutal occupation.
It is totally unethical to carry on 'business as
usual' with Israel when the war crimes and human rights
abuses of their illegal military occupation are stains
upon the conscience of humanity.
Please don't collaborate with apartheid! Observe a
cultural boycott until Israel ends the occupation and
its racist state terrorism. It happened with South
Africa and it will happen with Israel: justice demands a
boycott.
Yours |
* We are grateful to the BIG Campaign for their Alert on this event.
Please visit to read their correspondence with the
Tate. | |
