BOYCOTT!

February 3, 2011

Dear Gilberto Gil,

We are members of a group of over 200 Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian-led cultural boycott of Israel. As an artist who was himself imprisoned and exiled by a military regime in your country, we heard with dismay about your scheduled April 14 concert in Tel-Aviv. The Palestinian Call ^[1] for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) was issued in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in order to counter racism and such oppressive mechanisms as mass unlawful expulsion and imprisonment. We are aware that you visited Israel in the past. It is not much due to the act itself but due to its current context that we urge you now to heed the Palestinian Call and cancel your scheduled performance in Israel. By doing so you will stand by a globally growing, human rights-based and non-violent civil society Palestinian initiative.

                                                                                                                    February 12, 2011
 
Dear participants of the Red Sea Chamber Music Festival,
 
We, Israeli citizens and residents, Jews and Palestinians, are writing to you today to ask that you withdraw your participation from the 6th International Red Sea Chamber Music Festival.
 

We are a group of Israeli citizens who are deeply concerned about our government's policies of apartheid and occupation, and the European Union's complicity in these policies. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Poland for assuming the EU Presidency in July 2011. It has been brought to our attention that the first joint Polish-Israeli cabinet session is due in Jerusalem on the 24th of February.

As Israeli citizens who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions call on Israel, we believe that if Ian McEwan accepts the Jerusalem prize next month in Jerusalem (Letters, 26 January), it will make him a collaborator with Israel's worst human rights offenders and its "business as usual" policy. The Jerusalem prize is awarded by the Israeli establishment, which is keen on branding Israel in general, and Jerusalem in particular, as beacons of enlightenment and democracy. In reality, Ian McEwan will be playing into the hands of and shaking hands with cynical politicians who are trying to whitewash their systematic human rights violations. Specifically, he will be legitimising the actions of Jerusalem's racist mayor, Nir Barkat, who pursues and defends the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, in order for them to be occupied by Jewish settlers. If McEwan "opposes illegal Israeli settlements", how can he accept the accolades of the people who are responsible for that abomination?

“In the eyes of the world, the question is what can be done when the relevant institutions do not succeed in enforcing international law?”

Tanya Reinhart May 5, 2005¹

January 25, 2011

Dear British Writers in Support of Palestine (BWISP)

We are members of BOYCOTT!² - a group of Jews and Palestinians, citizens and residents of Israel, who are struggling to end the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinians. We are writing to reassure you that here, in Israel, your attempts to bring about a change in the Middle East will not fall on deaf ears. There is increasing evidence showing that the boycott movement, inspired by the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel³ may eventually affect Israel’s policies. Indeed the loss of Israel’s legitimacy, caused by the state’s war crimes and violation of international law, is affecting the Israeli public, its opinion shapers, as well as policy makers.

Dear Macy Gray,
 
We are a group of Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian Call [1] for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, as a means of bringing to an end Israel's decades-long systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.

Vanessa Paradis cancelled her performance in Israel

Dear Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp,

We are Israeli citizens. It has come to our attention that Ms. Paradis is planning on performing in Israel in March 2011, and that you are both expected to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres. You may not be aware, but there is an ongoing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, due to its policies of apartheid and occupation. We, as Israeli citizens endorse this boycott, and we are urging you to take this opportunity to take a stand on an issue crucial to human rights and as such, to human lives as well.

Dear Thomas Quasthoff,
 

Anonymous writer

December 13, 2010

To Adidas International Headquarters ([email protected]),

We are a group of Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian 2005 Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. We have noticed the mounting campaign ^[1] against your company's sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon scheduled to be held in March, 2011. Going through the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in occupied East Jerusalem, to the background view of the illegal apartheid and annexation wall, and circling the Hebrew University, which is built on land belonging to the East Jerusalem neighborhood Issawiyah - this marathon boasts of the Israeli illegal control and occupation of the oppressed indigenous Palestinian population of East Jerusalem. Indeed, as the campaigners noted, the marathon aids and abets a violation of international law, namely the war crime described by article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.