11 may 2019
Palestinian artists have again called on Eurovision song contestants to boycott the international music competition that Israel is hosting next week.
The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Artists Association said. on Wednesday, that Israel is using the event to “perpetuate oppression, promote injustice or whitewash a brutal apartheid regime”.
The artists cited the killing of more than 60 Palestinians during protests in Gaza along the Israeli fence on May 14 last year, the same day Israel won the Eurovision.
The association held a sit-in outside the EU‘s Gaza office and wrote a letter of protest.
On April 17, musician Roger Waters wrote an open letter to Madonna in The Guardian urging her to cancel her performance at this year’s Eurovision.
“To perform in Israel is a lucrative gig but to do so serves to normalise the occupation, the apartheid, the ethnic cleansing, the incarceration of children, the slaughter of unarmed protesters … all that bad stuff,” Waters wrote.
Earlier in the year British cultural figures – including Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Mike Leigh – also signed a letter calling on British broadcaster BBC to cancel its coverage of Eurovision.
However, BBC responded that it will take part in the event as the Eurovision Song Contest “is not a political event”.
Violence continues
In 2005, more than 200 Palestinian civil society organisations formed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) – modelled after the South African anti-apartheid movement – urging non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.
Since then. Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency reports, many musicians have heeded the call to boycott performances in Israel including Sinead O’Connor, Elvis Costello, Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, Roger Waters and Lorde.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “massive strikes” on the Gaza Strip after a two-day escalation in which Israeli warplanes and gunboats targeted Gaza, as fighters in the besieged enclave fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.
Over the weekend a surge of violence led to the deaths of at least 25 Palestinians and four Israelis.
The escalation began after Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, in two separate incidents, on Friday.
The renewed violence threatened to disrupt Eurovision 2019, slated to begin May 14, with hundreds of millions of viewers expected to tune in.
After three days of air raids and rocket attacks, Israel and Gaza reached a ceasefire agreement on Monday, with the help of Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Israel has held the Palestinian territories under military occupation since 1967 and blockaded the Gaza Strip for the past 12 years.
The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Artists Association said. on Wednesday, that Israel is using the event to “perpetuate oppression, promote injustice or whitewash a brutal apartheid regime”.
The artists cited the killing of more than 60 Palestinians during protests in Gaza along the Israeli fence on May 14 last year, the same day Israel won the Eurovision.
The association held a sit-in outside the EU‘s Gaza office and wrote a letter of protest.
On April 17, musician Roger Waters wrote an open letter to Madonna in The Guardian urging her to cancel her performance at this year’s Eurovision.
“To perform in Israel is a lucrative gig but to do so serves to normalise the occupation, the apartheid, the ethnic cleansing, the incarceration of children, the slaughter of unarmed protesters … all that bad stuff,” Waters wrote.
Earlier in the year British cultural figures – including Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Mike Leigh – also signed a letter calling on British broadcaster BBC to cancel its coverage of Eurovision.
However, BBC responded that it will take part in the event as the Eurovision Song Contest “is not a political event”.
Violence continues
In 2005, more than 200 Palestinian civil society organisations formed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) – modelled after the South African anti-apartheid movement – urging non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.
Since then. Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency reports, many musicians have heeded the call to boycott performances in Israel including Sinead O’Connor, Elvis Costello, Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, Roger Waters and Lorde.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “massive strikes” on the Gaza Strip after a two-day escalation in which Israeli warplanes and gunboats targeted Gaza, as fighters in the besieged enclave fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.
Over the weekend a surge of violence led to the deaths of at least 25 Palestinians and four Israelis.
The escalation began after Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, in two separate incidents, on Friday.
The renewed violence threatened to disrupt Eurovision 2019, slated to begin May 14, with hundreds of millions of viewers expected to tune in.
After three days of air raids and rocket attacks, Israel and Gaza reached a ceasefire agreement on Monday, with the help of Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Israel has held the Palestinian territories under military occupation since 1967 and blockaded the Gaza Strip for the past 12 years.
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Israeli Apartheid Week / Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Arab World, Palestine
Thanks to your support, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) was an even bigger success this year! IAW featured more than 200 events, across 30 countries, on five continents, all under the theme “Stop Arming Colonialism.” Events included big panel discussions at universities, concerts, film screenings, protests, poetry readings, comedy gigs, street art, sponsored hikes, fashion shows and more! Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. |
Israel is able to maintain its illegal occupation and apartheid regime over Palestinians partly due to its arms sales and the military support it receives from governments across the world.
Some highlights include:
In Palestine, the sixth national BDS conference was held in Ramallah. The conference, attended by more than 800 people from all around the occupied West Bank, featured a keynote address by video by Ms. Baleka Mbete, speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa.
Israeli Apartheid Week launched its events in Gaza with the words of Razan Najjar, a paramedic who was killed during the Great Return March, read by her mother, Sabreen Najjar, who opened the event.
Although two IAW events had to be postponed due to Israeli bombings of Gaza on March 26th, and despite the on-going siege, several events were held, including a street awareness campaign on economic boycott, and film-screenings.
At Birzeit University in the West Bank, the Right to Education campaign organized a photo exhibition on campus on the Great March of Return in Gaza.
The week launched a campaign on Palestinian Prisoners under Israel’s brutal system of incarceration, and a seminar was also held on Education in Israeli Prisons, in addition to sending letters and drawings to prisoners.
Students also watched the movie “Between Two Crossings,” by the late Yasser Murtaja, a Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. More activities and demonstrations were organized in Risan, Ni’lin, Bil’in, Beit Sira and Kafr Qaddum.
With G4S losing many contracts in Arab countries, tens of IAW events were organized in the Arab World focusing on G4S and other complicit multinationals. Activities included film screenings, panel discussions, lectures, and more, aimed at raising awareness about normalization, military embargo, and BDS campaigning.
In Kuwait, three prominent poets held a poetry night for Palestine, in addition to a film screening, a children’s kite event, and an energetic panel discussion with Kuwaiti and Palestinian activists on the cultural boycott.
In Jordan, with BDS Jordan, Palestinian Activist Tarek Bakri screened his film “Missing 48,” and discussed his project “We were and We still are here,” which reconnects Palestinian refugees with their homeland.
Bakri also presented his project in Morocco, where BDS Morocco organized solidarity events in several cities. In Egypt, BDS Egypt organized several events in cooperation with AUC’s Political Science Students’ Association, and Visualizing Palestine, closing the week by planting orange trees on Palestinian Land Day.
From Portugal to Hungary, Sweden, the Spanish state, Germany and many other countries, over 100 events were organised in Europe this year for Israeli Apartheid Week!
European organizers had the honour of hosting South African ANC veteran leader Ronnie Kasrils, who spoke at IAW events in Vienna, Bern, Geneva, Berlin and London.
Despite the growing anti-Palestinian repression in several European countries, his interventions inspired those who heard him, and his voice reached thousand of readers thanks to his op-ed published in the British newspaper The Guardian.
In the UK, tens of Universities organised for Apartheid Off Campus days of action, calling on their Universities to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.In France, Rania Madi from Badil, who also faced strong repression from the French state, toured the country and held events in five different cities.
IAW continues to grow on the African continent, under a strong women’s leadership. Members of BDS South Africa and the IAW team met with the deputy leader of the Namibian Parliament, together with members of the SWAPO (South West African People Organization) Women’s Council in Windhoek. Several engagements with political parties, trade unions and civil society groups were held in Botswana.
The people of Swaziland face their own oppression, yet, in an act of generous internationalism during this year’s IAW, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and the Swaziland National Union of students (SNUS), together with local churches and other progressive partner organizations, held a successful event in Manzini.
CPS explained that the focus of their event was “the historic relationship between African liberation struggles and that of the Palestinians, as well as Israel’s current oppression and expulsion of African refugees.” In South Africa dozens of events were organized across the country. Comic Mashabela Galane took to the stage in five cities for the comedy tour Apartheid Ain’t Funny! Ali Abunimah was on SABC TV News!
Activists in Latin America organized several activities in different parts of the continent, with multiple events in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The activities sought to make visible Israel’s escalating crimes against the Palestinian people, including ongoing colonization of territories and construction of illegal settlements, the imposition of Apartheid laws, and the brutal siege of Gaza.
In Mexico, for the first time, a Popular Tribunal was organized on the “Role of Israel in the Militarization of Latin America.” The tribunal was a meeting place for the different victims of militarization, and also for coordinating cross-movement struggles for the demilitarization of Mexico and the continent.
In the United States, students at more than twenty colleges and universities in ten states around the country held Israeli Apartheid Week events. Black Palestinian Solidarity was a frequent event theme, including at Harvard, Tufts, and Kent State. Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi performed on six different campuses.
Students at Harvard and Georgetown Universities published strong op-eds in their student newspapers explaining why Israel’s rule over Palestinians fits the definition of apartheid under international law. Off campus, performances by Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company were protested in New York City and Colorado due to Batsheva’s sponsorship by the Israeli government and role in whitewashing Israeli apartheid.
In Asia, IAW events were organized by groups in India and Malaysia. On university campuses in Kolkata and Delhi, India, events included talks and film screenings on Palestine and BDS. The discussions focused on India’s growing ties with Israel, as they go together with the incumbent government’s right wing agenda. In Malaysia,
BDS Malaysia organized a conference, Enhancing Palestine Solidarity in Malaysia, with lectures, discussions and a film screening. The keynote covered violations of international law as manifest in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Strengthening grassroots solidarity through BDS campaigns, and the centrality of women’s struggle in Palestine’s freedom movement were themes of the discussion.
Stay tuned for updates and let’s get ready for an even bigger IAW in 2020!
Some highlights include:
In Palestine, the sixth national BDS conference was held in Ramallah. The conference, attended by more than 800 people from all around the occupied West Bank, featured a keynote address by video by Ms. Baleka Mbete, speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa.
Israeli Apartheid Week launched its events in Gaza with the words of Razan Najjar, a paramedic who was killed during the Great Return March, read by her mother, Sabreen Najjar, who opened the event.
Although two IAW events had to be postponed due to Israeli bombings of Gaza on March 26th, and despite the on-going siege, several events were held, including a street awareness campaign on economic boycott, and film-screenings.
At Birzeit University in the West Bank, the Right to Education campaign organized a photo exhibition on campus on the Great March of Return in Gaza.
The week launched a campaign on Palestinian Prisoners under Israel’s brutal system of incarceration, and a seminar was also held on Education in Israeli Prisons, in addition to sending letters and drawings to prisoners.
Students also watched the movie “Between Two Crossings,” by the late Yasser Murtaja, a Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. More activities and demonstrations were organized in Risan, Ni’lin, Bil’in, Beit Sira and Kafr Qaddum.
With G4S losing many contracts in Arab countries, tens of IAW events were organized in the Arab World focusing on G4S and other complicit multinationals. Activities included film screenings, panel discussions, lectures, and more, aimed at raising awareness about normalization, military embargo, and BDS campaigning.
In Kuwait, three prominent poets held a poetry night for Palestine, in addition to a film screening, a children’s kite event, and an energetic panel discussion with Kuwaiti and Palestinian activists on the cultural boycott.
In Jordan, with BDS Jordan, Palestinian Activist Tarek Bakri screened his film “Missing 48,” and discussed his project “We were and We still are here,” which reconnects Palestinian refugees with their homeland.
Bakri also presented his project in Morocco, where BDS Morocco organized solidarity events in several cities. In Egypt, BDS Egypt organized several events in cooperation with AUC’s Political Science Students’ Association, and Visualizing Palestine, closing the week by planting orange trees on Palestinian Land Day.
From Portugal to Hungary, Sweden, the Spanish state, Germany and many other countries, over 100 events were organised in Europe this year for Israeli Apartheid Week!
European organizers had the honour of hosting South African ANC veteran leader Ronnie Kasrils, who spoke at IAW events in Vienna, Bern, Geneva, Berlin and London.
Despite the growing anti-Palestinian repression in several European countries, his interventions inspired those who heard him, and his voice reached thousand of readers thanks to his op-ed published in the British newspaper The Guardian.
In the UK, tens of Universities organised for Apartheid Off Campus days of action, calling on their Universities to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.In France, Rania Madi from Badil, who also faced strong repression from the French state, toured the country and held events in five different cities.
IAW continues to grow on the African continent, under a strong women’s leadership. Members of BDS South Africa and the IAW team met with the deputy leader of the Namibian Parliament, together with members of the SWAPO (South West African People Organization) Women’s Council in Windhoek. Several engagements with political parties, trade unions and civil society groups were held in Botswana.
The people of Swaziland face their own oppression, yet, in an act of generous internationalism during this year’s IAW, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and the Swaziland National Union of students (SNUS), together with local churches and other progressive partner organizations, held a successful event in Manzini.
CPS explained that the focus of their event was “the historic relationship between African liberation struggles and that of the Palestinians, as well as Israel’s current oppression and expulsion of African refugees.” In South Africa dozens of events were organized across the country. Comic Mashabela Galane took to the stage in five cities for the comedy tour Apartheid Ain’t Funny! Ali Abunimah was on SABC TV News!
Activists in Latin America organized several activities in different parts of the continent, with multiple events in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The activities sought to make visible Israel’s escalating crimes against the Palestinian people, including ongoing colonization of territories and construction of illegal settlements, the imposition of Apartheid laws, and the brutal siege of Gaza.
In Mexico, for the first time, a Popular Tribunal was organized on the “Role of Israel in the Militarization of Latin America.” The tribunal was a meeting place for the different victims of militarization, and also for coordinating cross-movement struggles for the demilitarization of Mexico and the continent.
In the United States, students at more than twenty colleges and universities in ten states around the country held Israeli Apartheid Week events. Black Palestinian Solidarity was a frequent event theme, including at Harvard, Tufts, and Kent State. Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi performed on six different campuses.
Students at Harvard and Georgetown Universities published strong op-eds in their student newspapers explaining why Israel’s rule over Palestinians fits the definition of apartheid under international law. Off campus, performances by Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company were protested in New York City and Colorado due to Batsheva’s sponsorship by the Israeli government and role in whitewashing Israeli apartheid.
In Asia, IAW events were organized by groups in India and Malaysia. On university campuses in Kolkata and Delhi, India, events included talks and film screenings on Palestine and BDS. The discussions focused on India’s growing ties with Israel, as they go together with the incumbent government’s right wing agenda. In Malaysia,
BDS Malaysia organized a conference, Enhancing Palestine Solidarity in Malaysia, with lectures, discussions and a film screening. The keynote covered violations of international law as manifest in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Strengthening grassroots solidarity through BDS campaigns, and the centrality of women’s struggle in Palestine’s freedom movement were themes of the discussion.
Stay tuned for updates and let’s get ready for an even bigger IAW in 2020!
10 may 2019
By: Dr. Nasser Laham
To all the artists participating in the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv.
This is not the beautiful Tel Aviv that they have told you about, this is the Palestinian city of Yaffa, the one that Zionists occupied in 1948, the one where Israel killed another nation and took its land by force.
Israel, the one that imposed a siege on Gaza. Israel, the one that bans Palestinians from singing, dancing, and celebrating.
Have you heard about famous Palestinian artists? Muhammad Assaf from Gaza? Have you heard of Reem Banna from Nazareth? Or any other name for any Palestinian artist singing inside the walls of an Israeli prison? Has anyone ever translated the words of Palestinian songs to you?
As you sing, look at the faces in the audience, are there any Arabs? Is there any Palestinian allowed to enter the hall and listen to your songs?
The occupation built a cement wall like the Berlin wall and threw the Arabs, the owners of the land, behind it, surrounding them and throwing bombs at them, until the occupation became the worst apartheid regime in the world.
Did you know there are 12 Israeli-only roads and Arabs are banned from driving their vehicles on it?
You are respected artists and adored by the world, so tell me how do you justify your participation in the contest while children cry behind those cement walls? How can you sing on the beach of Yaffa while the blood of the children of Gaza has not been washed away yet.
Do not believe Netanyahu with his trickster smile and fancy suit that he bought with corrupted money.
In the name of the miserable people behind the wall, whose homes and dreams have been destroyed by the Israeli occupation, we tell you that the occupation and the apartheid does not suit you. Since fate is unsettled and history does not stay the same, we dedicate this symphony to you (when the devil plays) and urge you “to please not sell your soul to the devil.”
To all the artists participating in the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv.
This is not the beautiful Tel Aviv that they have told you about, this is the Palestinian city of Yaffa, the one that Zionists occupied in 1948, the one where Israel killed another nation and took its land by force.
Israel, the one that imposed a siege on Gaza. Israel, the one that bans Palestinians from singing, dancing, and celebrating.
Have you heard about famous Palestinian artists? Muhammad Assaf from Gaza? Have you heard of Reem Banna from Nazareth? Or any other name for any Palestinian artist singing inside the walls of an Israeli prison? Has anyone ever translated the words of Palestinian songs to you?
As you sing, look at the faces in the audience, are there any Arabs? Is there any Palestinian allowed to enter the hall and listen to your songs?
The occupation built a cement wall like the Berlin wall and threw the Arabs, the owners of the land, behind it, surrounding them and throwing bombs at them, until the occupation became the worst apartheid regime in the world.
Did you know there are 12 Israeli-only roads and Arabs are banned from driving their vehicles on it?
You are respected artists and adored by the world, so tell me how do you justify your participation in the contest while children cry behind those cement walls? How can you sing on the beach of Yaffa while the blood of the children of Gaza has not been washed away yet.
Do not believe Netanyahu with his trickster smile and fancy suit that he bought with corrupted money.
In the name of the miserable people behind the wall, whose homes and dreams have been destroyed by the Israeli occupation, we tell you that the occupation and the apartheid does not suit you. Since fate is unsettled and history does not stay the same, we dedicate this symphony to you (when the devil plays) and urge you “to please not sell your soul to the devil.”
9 may 2019
Palestinian artists have called on participants taking part in the Eurovision song contest “to boycott the international music competition that Israel is hosting next week.”
According to the Palestinian Artists Association, based in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel is using the singing event to “perpetuate oppression, promote injustice or whitewash a brutal apartheid regime.”
In the statement published by the Palestinian Artists Association, on Wednesday, the artists cited the killing of more than 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces during protests along Gaza’s borders on May 14th 2018, “the same day Israel won the Eurovision, winning the right to host the 2019 edition.”
The association also held a sit-in outside the European Union’s Gaza office and wrote a letter of protest.
Numerous artists and cultural figures already urged a boycott of this year’s Israeli-hosted Eurovision, including Roger Waters, who wrote an open letter to American singer, Madonna, asking her to cancel her planned Eurovision performance.
The calls to boycott Eurovision have also come from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, urging artists to pull out of this year’s contest because of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
BDS has frequently called on many artists to cancel events in Israel, due to Israel's military action towards the Palestinians, in response some of the world’s top artists, such as Roger Waters, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, and Shakira have cancelled performances.
Recently, some 171 Swedish artists and celebrities have signed an open letter urging to boycott the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest and stressed that "as long as Israel, with its apartheid policy, denies the Palestinians their basic human rights, we must renounce all participation in Israeli cultural exchanges.”
In September 2018, about 140 artists, including musicians, writers, actors, directors, novelists, and poets have signed a letter calling for the boycott of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, which is scheduled to be held in Israel.
The letter signed by the 140 artists, including six Israeli artists, demanded the song contest should be boycotted if it is "hosted by Israel while it continues its grave, decades-old violations of Palestinian human rights."
According to the Palestinian Artists Association, based in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel is using the singing event to “perpetuate oppression, promote injustice or whitewash a brutal apartheid regime.”
In the statement published by the Palestinian Artists Association, on Wednesday, the artists cited the killing of more than 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces during protests along Gaza’s borders on May 14th 2018, “the same day Israel won the Eurovision, winning the right to host the 2019 edition.”
The association also held a sit-in outside the European Union’s Gaza office and wrote a letter of protest.
Numerous artists and cultural figures already urged a boycott of this year’s Israeli-hosted Eurovision, including Roger Waters, who wrote an open letter to American singer, Madonna, asking her to cancel her planned Eurovision performance.
The calls to boycott Eurovision have also come from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, urging artists to pull out of this year’s contest because of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
BDS has frequently called on many artists to cancel events in Israel, due to Israel's military action towards the Palestinians, in response some of the world’s top artists, such as Roger Waters, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, and Shakira have cancelled performances.
Recently, some 171 Swedish artists and celebrities have signed an open letter urging to boycott the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest and stressed that "as long as Israel, with its apartheid policy, denies the Palestinians their basic human rights, we must renounce all participation in Israeli cultural exchanges.”
In September 2018, about 140 artists, including musicians, writers, actors, directors, novelists, and poets have signed a letter calling for the boycott of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, which is scheduled to be held in Israel.
The letter signed by the 140 artists, including six Israeli artists, demanded the song contest should be boycotted if it is "hosted by Israel while it continues its grave, decades-old violations of Palestinian human rights."
