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By Jinjirrie, on September 17th, 2013
 Dear Amanda Palmer,
We appreciate your engagement with the cultural boycott in your statement on your blog [1], and would like to clarify to you that while your kickstarter house party does not fall within the ambit of the Palestinian-led boycott, because of its private nature and the absence of institutional backing, the gig at which you plan to play at the Barby would cross the boycott picket line.
To use a fact-finding tour with the Israeli organisation, Breaking the Silence “to see the areas they’re talking about”, as a kind of whitewashing of a contravention of the boycott is unacceptable.
We would hope you instead do make the effort, as did Jello Biafra [2], to view the results of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and then decide against breaching the boycott by playing at a public venue in Israel.
Would you have countenanced a tour of the apartheid South African bantustans with a white organisation and still played Sun City? We encourage you to listen to Palestinian voices who ask artists to respect the boycott and to realise that voices from the community of the Israeli oppressors do not represent Palestinians, and indeed often serve to silence and obscure the Palestinian message using deceptive words of ‘peace’ and ‘co-existence’. Palestinian people, in contrast, are asking you to co-resist with them in solidarity by respecting their boycott call.
As the PACBI (the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) has explained:
‘we simply ask that they do the sensible thing and stay away from Israel until they are knowledgeable enough about the “situation.” Artists are not being asked by one or two local individuals to boycott Israel, which could be dismissed as uninformed or unrepresentative of the common interest. In the Palestinian case, artists are being asked to respect the cultural boycott of Israel and its complicit institutions by a majority of Palestinian civil society, over 170 organizations from across the political and social spectrum, and especially by a great majority of Palestinian artists and cultural figures. If the Palestinian near-consensus is not sufficient to convince them, then they can at least refrain from performing, accepting prizes, or exhibiting art in Israel until they have visited the occupied Palestinian territory and spoken with exiled Palestinian refugees’.[3]
Some artists who played and then became aware of Israel’s oppression and the legitimacy of the boycott, like Macy Gray [4], Roger Waters [5] and Denise Jannah [6], later regretted their performances and would not have played had they known then what they later discovered.
Please refrain from playing at the Barby, please don’t breach the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions call and do make the effort also to find out more for yourself about Israel’s occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid.
DPAI (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel)
We are a group, of over 1300 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.
Notes:
[1] http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20130912/
[2] Jello Biafra cancels his Tel Aviv gig http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/jello-biafra-cancels-his-tel-aviv-gig
[3] Artists Violating Cultural Boycott of Israel: Moral Inconsistency and Logical Incoherence http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1582
[4] Macy Gray Regrets Feb Concert in Tel Aviv Israel
http://refrainplayingisrael.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/macy-gray-regrets-feb-concert-in-tel-aviv-israel/
[5] BDS Roundup: Alice Walker, Roger Waters call on Alicia Keys to cancel Tel Aviv show
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/bds-roundup-alice-walker-roger-waters-call-alicia-keys-cancel-tel-aviv-show
[6] Denise Jannah Expresses Support for BDS
http://www.kadaitcha.com/2011/09/18/denise-jannah-and-ramon-valles-now-support-bds/
See also:
Open Letter to Amanda Palmer: There is a profound ethical obligation to refuse to play in Israel http://refrainplayingisrael.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/open-letter-to-amanda-palmer-there-is.html
By Jinjirrie, on September 17th, 2013
Dear Amanda Palmer,
We recently became aware that you plan to breach the call by Palestinian Civil Society to boycott Israel. You announced on your website you plan to perform in Tel Aviv on October 23 at the Barby.
We respectfully ask you, as a musician of conscience, not to close your mind to the oppression of the Palestinian people. There is a profound ethical obligation to refuse to play in Israel, and even though the financial rewards might be considerable, we sincerely hope you choose to respect the boycott.
Recently, the esteemed Professor of Physics, Stephen Hawking, chose to support the boycott of apartheid Israel publicly. He joins Desmond Tutu, Roger Waters, Alice Walker, Ahmed Kathrada, Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, John Berger and many others who agree that Israel’s system of oppression cannot be brought to an end without ending international complicity and intensifying global solidarity, particularly through boycott. On the growing list of artists who have joined the boycott are Faithless, Leftfield, Gorillaz, Klaxons, Massive Attack, Gil Scott Heron, Santana, Pete Seeger, Pixies, Tindersticks, Elvis Costello, Three Little Birds, Cassandra Wilson and Cat Power. They understand it takes a boycott to work for justice, and that “dialogue” or performing in Israel while also speaking out against it has failed.
Music cannot “build bridges” between Israel and the millions of Palestinians whom it oppresses. Bridges can be built through boycott, as was the case in South Africa, with the ultimate result being that the rights of all people are respected.
The purpose of the boycott is to exert pressure on Israel to respect the rights of Palestinians, by ending its occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; recognising the rights of Palestinian refugees who are prevented from returning to their homes just because they are not Jewish; and abolishing institutionalised discrimination including more than 50 laws [1] preventing equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
This boycott builds on a historical tradition of popular resistance around the world: from within Palestine itself, to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Historically, boycotts have been proven to work to end injustice.
Roger Waters wrote:
Where governments refuse to act people must, with whatever peaceful means are at their disposal. For me this means declaring an intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government’s policies, by joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. This is [however] a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott. Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel.[2]
Desmond Tutu has this view:
I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.[3]
“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory … Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong … to perform in Israel“.[4]
Today, due to the boycott call and its international magnitude, it is impossible for any international artist to play in Israel in a political vacuum. If you ignore the boycott, your performance will be interpreted and used by the state of Israel and its supporters as an endorsement of, and propaganda for, Israel’s regime, whether you want it to be or not.
Billions of dollars are lavished on Israel annually by western states, particularly the United States, the UK and Germany. Taxpayers in those countries are in effect subsidising Israel’s violations of international law at a time when their own social programs are undergoing severe cuts, unemployment is rising, and the environment is being devastated.
Please join in the effort to end western complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and respect the grassroots Palestinian-led call for cultural boycott.[5] Your solidarity with the boycott would not only support Palestinians’ non-violent struggle for rights, but would also give hope to others around the world working for social justice against perpetual war.
Sincerely,
DPAI (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel)
We are a group, of over 1300 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.
[1] http://adalah.org/eng/Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/cultural-boycott-west-bank-wall
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desmond-tutu/divesting-from-injustice_b_534994.html
[4] http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article727749.ece/Tutu-urges-Cape-Town-Opera-to-call-off-Israel-tour
[5] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1047
SOURCE
By Jinjirrie, on September 16th, 2013
The Fall
Don’t expect me to care about your empire
its sacrifices, its bloody flag that hides
money men from scrutiny
your capitalism, your patriarchy
your imbalances, your hatred for trees,
your intrepid ‘pioneers’, your usurpers,
your love for hard-footed soil-squandering
sheep, cattle and goats,
always the goats, eroding,
as you do, you and your greed,
enslaving us all for your short-term gains,
your pollution, your land-clearing,
your civilisation, your corrosion,
your obsession with domination,
the fire in my belly burns you to ash,
i am the thorny bush
even your goats find indigestible.
Jinjirrie, September 2013.
The Elite
Is the US still wondering why?
will twin towers
of ignorance and greed ever fall?
profits before people,
drones before homes
helter skelter before shelter
who dwells in mansions
paid for by war expansions?
endless terror
padding coffers of rich
deserving poor
are thrown in the ditch.
red raw capitalism
shrouded in religious schism
who’s jealous of freedom to bomb at will
the empire glories in spoils of the kill.
Jinjirrie, September 2013.
A Spell for Staying Well
One sip of moonlight, stirred with the tip of a dandelion,
look high up there to the right, the buddha sits and grins,
does he say it’s all an illusion when the pain walks in,
hold that choice between one delicious word and another,
even if the universe inevitably steals the last laugh.
Jinjirrie, September 2013.
By Jinjirrie, on September 7th, 2013
Of Stoats and Boats So here’s the day of voting depression where Murdoch bigans pervert the election, democratic choice stolen by stoats Minime Canutes can’t stop the boats but piss on the people to rise the tide of ignorance, racism and bigotry inside this greedy country that doesn’t want to share and still bleats . . . → Read More if you dare: Election Day 2013 – Of Privilege, Boats and Dinosaurs
By Jinjirrie, on September 1st, 2013
Boycott the Red Sea Jazz FestivalInspirational singer and composer Sonia Montez advocates for boycott of apartheid Israel: “When Mexico bleeds, and no one listens, who suffers. Would you play in a festival in Mexico that was supported by corrupt officials, the ones who feed into the violence epidemic sweeping Mexico? Do you not know . . . → Read More if you dare: Musician Sonia Montez Speaks Out in Support of the Cultural Boycott of Israel
By Jinjirrie, on August 28th, 2013
Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine Dear Sir Tom We are a group of Palestinian musicians, academics and students from the besieged Gaza Strip in Palestine. Despite Israel’s blockade of our land, air and sea borders we have continued to enjoy the soul, vibrancy and passion of your songs. Israel has deprived us of our homes, . . . → Read More if you dare: To Tom Jones from Gaza : Sing for Freedom and Justice, Not Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing
By Jinjirrie, on August 26th, 2013
Dear Friends in the Palestine Strings, I was so happy to see the work we did on dynamic contrast, intonation and really listening to each other being realized at such an extraordinary level. Congratulations! I am looking forward to working on Bach with you and other styles of music in which we can further . . . → Read More if you dare: Nigel Kennedy’s Open Letter to the Palestine Strings
By Jinjirrie, on August 25th, 2013
Last week, Salif Keita announced his decision to cancel his performance at the Jerusalem Festival of Sacred Music, held at the Tower of David in Occupied East Jerusalem, and funded by the American Zionist Shusterman Foundation. That the festival was held at such a location where Occupied people are routinely imprisoned, tortured, killed and . . . → Read More if you dare: What Does BDS Threaten and Who Really Makes Threats?
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Dear Amanda Palmer,
