nhboy
Ubi bene ibi patria
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"In 2009, a couple of weeks after the end of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, dubbed "Operation: Cast Lead", I decided to adopt the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel. The three-week assault, which served as the model for last summer's rampage, was carried out on the pretext of ending erratic rocket fire from the besieged Gaza strip.
In reality it represented an escalation of the daily violence committed by Israeli occupation forces against a relatively defenceless civilian population, themselves mostly refugees from previous rounds of aggression.
Fourteen hundred Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, including at least 308 children. Thousands of innocent people were injured, disabled for life, or orphaned, traumatised and made homeless.
The carnage comprised of various war crimes, including the use of white phosphorous, the mass killings of near-entire families, the shooting of women and children waving white flags and the destruction of schools and pre-schools.
Israel, whose military spokespeople claimed self-defence, lost ten soldiers and three civilians to home-made rockets and friendly fire.
The asymmetry of the situation was demonstrated beyond any doubt and I was struck by a certainty: any acts of individual resistance should find expression through the global solidarity movement, and had to incorporate the burgeoning BDS tactic. The Palestinian-led call is for the economic, cultural and academic boycotts of Israel and complicit institutions. It is worth mentioning that as a citizen of the Jewish state (along with 1.7 million other Palestinians) I can be sued for publicly adopting this position, and there are other legal movesto prohibit the use of this protest.
The news that over 900 UK-based artists had pledged to boycott Israel, (a number that has now reached over 1000) was welcomed by Palestinian rights supporters early this year. The ad hoc collective includes Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Jarvis Cocker, Roger Waters, Matthew Herbert and Una Baines, as well as poets Kate Tempest and Benjamin Zephaniah, directors Mike Leigh, Peter Kosminsky, Julien Temple, Ken Loach, Carol Morley and Leila Sansour, actors Maxine Peake, Prunella Scales, Miriam Margolyes and Rizwan Ahmed, comedians Alexei Sayle, Jeremy Hardy and Mark Thomas, writers John Berger, Victoria Brittain, Laurie Penny, Michael Rosen, Adhaf Soueif and Bonnie Greer, artist Bob and Roberta Smith and other cultural workers from all fields.
The pledge itself is sensible enough:
"We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights."
The Artists for Palestine UK website goes on: "APUK recognises that Israel has, since 1948, denied fundamental human rights to the Palestinian people; that dispossession, colonisation, land annexation, illegal settlement and military aggression are habitually deployed by the Israeli state without it facing sanction, or any threat of sanction, from Western governments."
"In 2009, a couple of weeks after the end of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, dubbed "Operation: Cast Lead", I decided to adopt the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel. The three-week assault, which served as the model for last summer's rampage, was carried out on the pretext of ending erratic rocket fire from the besieged Gaza strip.
In reality it represented an escalation of the daily violence committed by Israeli occupation forces against a relatively defenceless civilian population, themselves mostly refugees from previous rounds of aggression.
Fourteen hundred Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, including at least 308 children. Thousands of innocent people were injured, disabled for life, or orphaned, traumatised and made homeless.
The carnage comprised of various war crimes, including the use of white phosphorous, the mass killings of near-entire families, the shooting of women and children waving white flags and the destruction of schools and pre-schools.
Israel, whose military spokespeople claimed self-defence, lost ten soldiers and three civilians to home-made rockets and friendly fire.
The asymmetry of the situation was demonstrated beyond any doubt and I was struck by a certainty: any acts of individual resistance should find expression through the global solidarity movement, and had to incorporate the burgeoning BDS tactic. The Palestinian-led call is for the economic, cultural and academic boycotts of Israel and complicit institutions. It is worth mentioning that as a citizen of the Jewish state (along with 1.7 million other Palestinians) I can be sued for publicly adopting this position, and there are other legal movesto prohibit the use of this protest.
The news that over 900 UK-based artists had pledged to boycott Israel, (a number that has now reached over 1000) was welcomed by Palestinian rights supporters early this year. The ad hoc collective includes Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Jarvis Cocker, Roger Waters, Matthew Herbert and Una Baines, as well as poets Kate Tempest and Benjamin Zephaniah, directors Mike Leigh, Peter Kosminsky, Julien Temple, Ken Loach, Carol Morley and Leila Sansour, actors Maxine Peake, Prunella Scales, Miriam Margolyes and Rizwan Ahmed, comedians Alexei Sayle, Jeremy Hardy and Mark Thomas, writers John Berger, Victoria Brittain, Laurie Penny, Michael Rosen, Adhaf Soueif and Bonnie Greer, artist Bob and Roberta Smith and other cultural workers from all fields.
The pledge itself is sensible enough:
"We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights."
The Artists for Palestine UK website goes on: "APUK recognises that Israel has, since 1948, denied fundamental human rights to the Palestinian people; that dispossession, colonisation, land annexation, illegal settlement and military aggression are habitually deployed by the Israeli state without it facing sanction, or any threat of sanction, from Western governments."
