Monday, 16 February 2015

700 British artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel



Good news 700 British Artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel, as  long as it  " continues to deny  basic Palestinian rights," This is the latest major success for the Global Boycott Divestment and  Sanctions of Israel Movement.
It is a response to the call from Palestinians artists and cultural  boycott of Israel. The artists include Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and many others.
The call reads, according to the Group Artists for Palestine |UK which organised the pledge as follows :_

"Along with  more than 600 other fellow artists, we are announcing today, we will not engage in  business as usual cultural relations with Israel. We will accept  neither  professional  invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions, linked to its government. Since  the Summer war in Gaza, Palestinians have enjoyed no respite  from Israels unrelenting attack on their land, their livelihood, their right to political existence. "2014" says the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem was " one of the cruellest and deadliest in the history of the occupation." The Palestinian catastrophe goes on.

More here

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/cultural-boycott-israel-starts-tomorrow


The initiative comes from Artists for Palestine. A full list of other cultural figures who signed can be found here :-

http://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/

The cultural boycott against Israel it seems  to be on the rise and will do  as long as Israel continues to deny basic human rights to the Palestinian people  combined with discriminatory laws like those of Apartheid South Africa. It is good to know that  modern artists have not  thrown their moral compasses away, and choose not to engage with Israel, until the time that the Palestinian people are free once more. Personally I reject  all forms  of bigotry and discrimination, including anti-Semitism, but proudly  support a moral and inclusive movement  that is struggling against the oppressive policies of a country, that defines  in religious exclusive terms, that seeks to deny  the Palestinian their most basic human rights simply because they do not share the same religion.



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