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BACBI: Press Releases: Cultural Boycott
Cultuur is geen promomiddel voor apartheid (Persbericht De Standaard, 6 oktober 2015).
In navolging van een academische boycot eerder dit jaar, laten nu ook 160 kunstenaars en cultuurwerkers weten dat ze niet met de Israëlische overheid samenwerken zolang die een politiek van apartheid, bezetting en discriminatie voert.
De vluchtelingencrisis eist dezer dagen al onze aandacht op. Maar weten we nog dat de eerste grote vluchtelingenstroom na de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd veroorzaakt door de oprichting van de staat Israël? Vier vijfde van de Palestijnen werden verdreven tijdens de etnische zuivering die Palestijnen omschrijven als de Nakba, ‘de Catastrofe’. Nu leven zo’n zes miljoen Palestijnen in de diaspora. Vandaag bouwt Israël als reactie op de huidige vluchtelingencrisis nieuwe muren aan zijn grenzen. Net zoals het een muur bouwt om het Palestijnse volk onder de knoet van een militair regime te houden. De decennialange kolonisering, landinname, onderdrukking en bezetting door Israël – in overtreding van het internationaal recht – is een van de grote oorzaken van frustratie en geweld in de hele regio.
Wij willen een duidelijk signaal geven aan Israël: stop met die politiek van apartheid, bezetting en discriminatie. Ze maakt een democratische toekomst voor alle bewoners van Israël en Palestina onmogelijk. Kunst en cultuur mag dan een vrijplaats zijn waar kritische zin en uitwisseling mensen dichter bij elkaar kan brengen, de dagelijkse realiteit voor de Palestijnen is er een van verdrukking en vernedering. Enerzijds viseert het Israëlische leger Palestijnse culturele instellingen, sluit cultuurhuizen, verhindert Palestijnse kunstenaars om zich vrij te verplaatsen, en anderzijds gebruikt Israël cultuur als glijmiddel voor zijn koloniaal project. Israël voert oorlog, ook op het culturele vlak.
Hypocriet spel
Deze culturele boycot viseert niet de individuele Israëlische kunstenaar, noch Israëlische gezelschappen of hun producties. Het gaat om een boycot van instituten, festivals en culturele initiatieven die door de Israëlische overheid opgezet worden met het doel de koloniale apartheid en bezetting te legitimeren en vooral ook te banaliseren. Deze actie heeft dan ook niets van doen met antisemitisme.
Zoals pianiste Mireille Gleizes, een van de ondertekenaars, het zei: ‘Boycot is misschien niet de beste manier om dingen te verbeteren, maar na meer dan vijftig jaar schendingen van het internationaal recht door de Israëlische regering en een situatie die erger wordt, voelde ik dat ik moest tekenen, omdat ik geen andere weg zie. In plaats van bruggen bouwen zij muren.’
BACBI (Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) en zijn ondertekenaars zijn ervan overtuigd dat concrete boycotacties het enige vreedzame middel zijn om de druk op Israël te verhogen. Wereldwijd kent deze actie steeds meer succes. Artiesten uit verschillende landen weigeren om nog mee te spelen in dit hypocriete spel. De BDS-beweging (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions) wordt door Israël zeer gevreesd en tot staatsvijand nummer één uitgeroepen, een teken dat deze geweldloze vorm van druk wel degelijk effectief is.
De agressie tegen de Palestijnen wordt ook in Jeruzalem steeds heviger. De regering van Israël eist ‘in ruil voor de Iran-deal’ van de Verenigde Staten onder meer dat de annexatie van grote delen van de Westbank geaccepteerd wordt. Gevangennemen zonder vorm van proces, scholen en huizen afbreken, collectieve bestraffingen, ze duren onverminderd voort. Op zo’n moment zeggen wij: boycot Israël, ook cultureel!
No to the political abuse of art and culture in the service of apartheid! (Press Release, October 6, 2015)
In the wake of the academic boycott call earlier this year, 160 Belgian artists and cultural workers as well profess their refusal to collaborate in any way with the State of Israel as long as it pursues its policies of apartheid, occupation and colonisation.
The refugee crisis, these days, is claiming all our attention. Do we remember, though, that the first massive stream of refugees after World War II was caused by the establishment of the State of Israel? Implacably, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their ancestral homes and lands as part of the ethnic cleansing the Palestinians themselves recall as al-Nakba, i.e. “the Catastrophe”. Nowadays 6 million of them are living in the diaspora, many of them in refugee camps or fleeing once again. Meanwhile, in a reaction to the present crisis, Israel starts building new walls, in the same way as it builds a wall around the Palestinian people in order to keep it subjugated under a harsh, military regime. Palestine's colonization, dispossession and occupation by Israel, in violation of international law, is one of the important causes of frustration and violence in the whole region.
With our campaign of cultural boycott we wish to give Israel a clear signal: put an end to your policy of apartheid, occupation and discrimination! A democratic future for all the inhabitants of Israel and Palestine is made impossible because of it. Agreed: art and culture may be a sanctuary where critical sense and human exchange can bring people together. For the Palestinians, though, the daily reality is one of repression and humiliation. The occupying Israeli army, on the one hand, is targeting Palestinian cultural institutions and centers and makes freedom of movement impossible for Palestinian artists. On the other hand, Israel is abusing arts and culture as an ideological lubricant for its colonial project. The Israeli state, that is, is waging a war on the cultural front as well.
A hypocritical game.
This cultural boycott does not target individual Israeli artists or artistic companies and their productions. It bears upon institutions, festivals and cultural events set up by the Israeli authorities in order to legitimatize, or most of all: trivialize, its colonial apartheid and occupation. Our commitment to justice for the Palestinians has nothing to do with any kind of anti-Semitism.
As it was formulated by one of our signatories, Mireille Gleizes: “Boycotting is maybe not the best way to improve things and I considered strongly before signing the petition but after more than 50 years of violation of international law by the Israelian government and a situation that becomes worse I felt I had to because I don’t see another way. Instead of bridges they are building walls”.
BACBI (Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) and its 600 signatories are convinced that specific boycott activities are the only peaceful way to increase the pressure on the Israeli authorities and their colonial policies. The global boycott campaign has a growing impact. Artists of different countries refuse to play in this hypocritical game. BDS is worrying the Israeli authorities more and more and is now recognized by them as being a “strategic threat” – a sign that this non-violent way of putting pressure is effective, indeed.
These days, in Jerusalem as well as in the West Bank the aggressions against the Palestinians are on the increase, making a lot of victims. In a kind of "exchange for the Iran deal", the Israeli government demands from the US that it’d accept, among other things, the annexation of large parts of the West Bank. Incarcerations without indictment, demolitions of houses and schools, collective punishments, killings, nightly raids... they continue unabated. In such circumstances we keep calling: do boycott Israel, culturally as well!
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Current Affairs
- *"Israel aims to ‘Judaize’ historical Bethlehem village" (Middle East Monitor, Jan 13, 2017).
- Nasouh NAZZAL: "Israel’s pesticide war on Gazan farmers" (Gulf News Palestine, Dec 26, 2016).
- Emily MULDER: "Israeli guard: 'Go from this land or I will kill you'" (Al Jazeera, Dec 26, 2016).
- "A six-year-old Palestinian girl killed after being run over by Israeli settler" (Middle East Children Alliance, 2016).
- Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "In Some of the Israeli Army's Raids, Leaving Empty-handed Is Not an Option" (Haaretz, Aug 27, 2016).
- "Israeli settlers attack Palestinian girl in Ramallah, stab and kill her sheep" (Ma'an, Aug 5, 2016).
- "Un enfant palestinien [de 12 ans] tué par des soldats israéliens" (Libération, 19 juillet 2016).
- Kit O'CONNELL: "Israel Cutting Palestinians Off From Their Own Water Supply" (MintPress News, June 30, 2016).
- "Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Child Near Ramallah" (IMEMC, June 21, 2016).
- Edo KONRAD: "Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror" (+972, June 9, 2016).
- "After being shot three days ago by IOF, Palestinian youth dies from injuries" (Palestinian Information Center, June 6, 2016).
- Palestine PMO: Israel’s destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure is atrocious (Palestine News Network, May 26, 2016).
- Again, settlers burn Palestinian farms in West Bank (Days of Palestine, May 16, 2016).
- Michal ZAK: "Third intifada, terror wave, the 'situation': Just don't mention the 'O' word to Israelis" (Middle East Eye, March 13, 2016).
- Jon QUEALLY: "Brother and Sister, Children Aged 10 and 6, Killed by Israeli Bombing in Gaza" (Common Dreams, March 13, 2016).
- Jonathan COOK: "Aid subversion report makes for shocking reading" (The National, March 7, 2016).
- "Palestijns meisje van 13 geëxecuteerd" (alexandrina.nl, 23 jan, 2016).
- "UN decries Abu Nuwar demolitions, calls for immediate end to planned transfers" (Medical Aid for Palestinians, MAP, Jan 20, 2016).
- Julie PUTSEYS: "Palestijnse empowerment op Israëlische scholen." Geen gelijke kansen zonder evenwaardig onderwijs. Zo denkt de Arabisch-Israëlische professor Dalia Fadila er alleszins over. (MO*, 10 Jan 2016).
- Uri SAVIR: "Why solving Israel-Palestine conflict is still key for regional stability" (Al-Monitor, Jan 3, 2016).
- C.J.WERLEMAN: "The road to hell is paved with 'national security'". Israel is turning the West’s fixation on the Islamic State group into an opportunity to expand its apartheid laws and militarisation of the West Bank (Middle East Eye, Jan 1, 2016).
- Mazal MUALEM: "'Hate wedding' video offers glimpse at Jewish terror" (Al-Monitor, Dec 28, 2015).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Catastrophe for Syrians and Palestinians alike in war-ravaged country" (The Electronic Intifada, Dec 23, 2015).
- Shlomi ELDAR: "Why the US is part of Middle East problem, not the solution". Interview with Ayman Odeh (Al-Monitor, Dec 14, 2015).
- Philip WEISS: "Obama’s ISIS czar says we can’t defeat extremism without resolving Palestinian issue" (Mondoweiss, Dec 14, 2015).
- Uri SAVIR: "How the Islamic State hurts Palestinian cause" (Al-Monitor, Dec 6, 2015).
- Al Jazeera: "Gaza's crumbling healthcare system" (Yahoo.com, Dec 8, 2015).
- Nurit CANETTI: "The radicalization of Israel" (Al-Monitor, Dec 2, 2015).
- Kate: "Prominent Israeli settler runs over 16-year-old girl, then shoots her dead" (Mondoweiss, Nov 23, 2015).
- Gideon LEVY: "So These Are Israel's New Heroes?" Israel's recent military operations in Palestinian hospitals are a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention, and make you wonder how low the country can sink (Haaretz, Nov 21, 2015).
- Philip WEISS: "The best way for Americans to defeat the Islamic state is to end support for Jewish nationalism" (Mondoweiss, Nov 15, 2015).
- Ahmed MOOR: "The Problem of Palestine is Zionism" (Fair Observer, Nov 11, 2015).
- Miko PELED: "Zionism is racism: Notes from Tel-Rumeida, Hebron, El-Khalil" (American Herald Tribune, Nov 13, 2015).
- Megan HANNA: "‘It Has Become A Prison’: The ghettoization of Hebron" (Mondoweiss, Nov 11, 2015).
- Avigail ABARBANEL: "Netanyahu’s craziness is calculated, to drive out Palestinians" (Mondoweiss, Nov 5, 2015).
- Michel WARSCHAWSKI: "La jeunesse palestinienne à couteaux tirés avec Israël" (Orient XXI, 15 Oct 2015).
- Kamel HAWWASH: "Palestinians have a problem with occupiers not (with) Jews" (MEMO, Oct 30, 2015).
- "Palestijnse baby vermoord met traangas" (Alexandrina, Oct 31, 2015).
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Israel’s executions of Palestinian teens must end, Amnesty says" (The Electronic Intifada, Oct 28, 2015).
- Killian REDDEN: "Hebron at eye of the storm as death toll rises" (Ma'an News Agency, Oct 26, 2015).
- "Netanyahu Shamelessly Exploits the Shoah to Stoke Fear of Palestinians" (Jewish Voice for Peace, Oct 21, 2015).
- Amos GVIRTZ: "From Unilateral- to Bilateral War - or: How the Palestinians Fight to Prevent Being Expelled From the Country" (Occupation Magazine, Oct 20, 2015).
- Noam SHEIZAF: "Jerusalem, in context" (+972, October 19, 2015). "The current events in Jerusalem have a political history and context. Attempts to attribute the violence to some kind of Palestinian pathology while ignoring other factors is a recipe for making things worse."
- Meron RAPOPORT: "The paradox of Jerusalem" (Middle East Eye, October 17, 2015).
- Hatem BAZIAN: "Palestine's Wound" (Medium, October 18, 2015).
- Robert COHEN: "Israel gets away with it because it is a global arms supplier — Jeff HALPER" (Mondoweiss, October 15, 2015).
- David HEARST: "A new intifada for a new generation" (Middle East Eye, October 12, 2015).
- Gideon LEVY: "Israel's Lawless Death Penalty Without Trial Buoyed by Cheers of the Masses". "In this way, one of the main reasons for this uprising’s eruption is demonstrated - the dehumanization of the Palestinians, whose life and death are worthless to the Israelis" (Haaretz, October 11, 2015).
- Odeh BISHARAT: "Even the Brighter Side of Israel Demands Execution Without Trial". In Israel, the occupation is embraced in almost every home. It's no wonder that cop shot the woman with the knife so quickly (Haaretz, 11 October 2015).
- Peter BEAUMONT: "Israeli occupation is root cause of Palestine conflict, says Marwan Barghouti". Jailed Palestinian leader calls on international community to tackle root cause of violence between Palestinians and Israelis (The Guardian, 11 October 2015).
- Noam SHEIZAF: "Israel still holds all the cards" (+972, 11 October 2015).
- Sawsan KHALIFE': "The heavy price of segregation and occupation" (+972, 9 October 2015).
- Peter BEAUMONT: "Is a third Palestinian intifada on the way – or has it already begun?" Violence is escalating but it is not yet clear whether Palestinian society is united in a desire for another prolonged period of unrest (The Guardian, 5 October 2015).
- Jesse RUBIN: "Throwing stones is part of Palestine’s struggle" (The Electronic Intifada, 5 October 2015).
- Meron RAPOPORT: "Netanyahu faces possible civil war" (Middle East Eye, 5 October 2015).
- Nasim AHMED: "With the rise of settler terrorism, can Israel still be described as a rational political actor?" (Middle East Monitor, 3 October 2015).
- Sharif NASHASHIBI: "At the UN, Abbas wastes another opportunity for Palestine" (Middle East Eye, 1 October 2015).
- Sarah CHAMPION: "Gaza Is a Horrific Humanitarian Disaster That We Cannot Allow to Continue" (Huffington Post UK, 24/9/2015).
- Rosemary SAYIGH: "The Price of Statelessness: Palestinian Refugees From Syria" (al-shabaka.org, 15 May 2013).
- "Al-Aqsa, la révolte impuissante". "Alain Gresh et René Backmann analysent la dynamique de la violence à l’œuvre à Jérusalem-Est et l’intensification de la politique de judaïsation de la ville" (Association France Palestine Solidarité, 16 septembre 2015).
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