November 2018
To The Festival Academy, Jiri Stivin, Christophe Chassol, Camilla Battaglia, Deantoni Parks, Shahin Novrasli, Matt Wilson and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson,
We are citizens of Israel, opposed to our government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. We write to ask you to respect the Palestinian civil society call [2], especially its cultural aspect [3], and cancel your participation in the Jerusalem Jazz Festival. Please hear us out.
First and foremost we must talk about the fact that Jerusalem is a segregated city [4]. While Jewish residents of the city have basic human and civil rights, the indigenous Palestinian population of the city lives in poverty and neglect, with over 100,000 of them under a brutal military regime [5]. They are prohibited from Israeli citizenship and the democratic rights that come with citizenship, and are under constant threat of regime and settler violence, arrest, home demolitions and even exile from their native city, with residency rights being revoked at an average rate of more than 300 Jerusalemites a year, tearing families and whole communities apart.
The Jerusalem Jazz Festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of foreign affairs and embassies, the Jerusalem municipality, Jerusalem Development Authority, and the Jerusalem Foundation. So while the Ministry of foreign affairs and its embassies exhibit the cultured face of Israel with cultural events such as The Jerusalem Jazz Festival; it's in fact distracting attention from the Jerusalem municipality [6], along with the Jerusalem Development Authority [7] and the Jerusalem Foundation [8] ethnic cleansing projects of the indigenous Palestinian population of Jerusalem.
It is for these constantly-deteriorating policies- both on a state and municipal level- that we ask artists scheduled to participate in The Jerusalem Jazz Festival to refuse to lend their names to an event that serves to distract from Israel's crimes. Please cancel your participation.
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within
[email protected]
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within
[email protected]