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| Down Under |
| 120 artists, industry officials slam boycott of Sydney festival over Israeli funding |
| 2022-01-08 |
| [IsraelTimes] Quoting Aussie rocker Nick Cave, open letter states that ’cultural boycott of Israel is cowardly and shameful’; 30 acts withdraw over Israel sponsoring one of the shows Over 120 entertainment industry figures signed an open letter against the boycott of a major cultural festival in Sydney, Australia, that began Thursday, after 30 acts and individuals withdrew over a sponsorship deal with the Israeli embassy. In the letter published Thursday by the Creative Community for Peace, the signatories said they "believe the cultural boycott movement of the Sydney Festival is an affront to both Paleostinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise, exchange, and mutual recognition. "While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict and the best path to peace, we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer," the letter continued. It quoted comments made by Aussie rocker Nick Cave in 2018, in which he said: "The cultural boycott of Israel is cowardly and shameful." "Israel is a real, vibrant, functioning democracy — yes, with Arab members of parliament — and so engaging with Israelis, who vote, may be more helpful than scaring off artists or shutting down means of engagement." Earlier this week, 30 bands, individual artists, companies, and panel members canceled their gigs or went ahead without sponsorships at the Sydney Festival 2022, in response to the Israeli funding for a show tied to an Israeli choreographer. The embassy provided $20,000 for "Decadance," a show based on a work by Ohad Naharin and Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company, as part of the Sydney Festival 2022. It was performed by the Sydney Dance Company on January 6 at the Sydney Opera House as scheduled, and is scheduled to run through January 9. On the festival website, the embassy is listed as a "star partner" due to the sponsorship. Artists pulled out in response to calls for a boycott by Arab, pro-Paleostinian, and other activist groups, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. Some of those who withdrew accused Israel of apartheid practices toward the Paleostinians. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... festival organizers remained determined to allow the performance to go ahead. The Paleostinian Justice Movement Sydney claimed in December that the Israeli embassy funding was agreed on in May and called for a boycott, accusing the festival of contributing "to the normalization of an apartheid state." PJMS called for a protest demonstration to be held opposite Sydney’s opera house when the festival kicked off Thursday. The pro-Paleostinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement says it seeks to end Israel’s control of lands captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and what it describes as discrimination against Israel’s Arab minority. It also calls for a "right of return" for millions of Paleostinian refugees and their descendants to ancestral lands that they fled or were expelled from in the 1948 war during Israel’s creation. Israeli officials vehemently reject the apartheid accusations, and Israel and other BDS opponents say that the BDS campaign encourages antisemitism and aims to delegitimize or even destroy Israel as a Jewish state. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |