Campaigns

Park Slope Food Coop, Stand for Human Rights - Say No to Exploitation and Apartheid!

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Dear members of the Park Slope Food Coop,
 
We are members of Boycott From Within, a group of Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) call and international campaign against Israel's human-rights and international law violations. We support the initiative to boycott Israeli products from the Park Slope Food Coop and we are asking for your help in passing this initiative and more generally to help our struggle to change the Israeli government's policies.

Lady Gaga, Don't Sustain Israel's Poker Face

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The below letter was published on November 17, 2011 in response to media reports that suggest Lady Gaga went on and scheduled a performance in Israel on summer 2012

May 4, 2011

 

Dear Lady Gaga,

 

We are a group of about 250 Israeli citizens who support the human rights-based Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) [1]. We learned through the media that Israeli producers try to lure you into performing this summer in Israel, thus undermining a growing international movement to end Israel's impunity and promote a just solution that respects human rights and international law in Palestine\Israel. We therefore would like to urge you not to perform in Israel at this time.

 

About a year ago Palestinian demonstrators in Hebron (Al-Khalil) danced to your song [2], “Poker Face”, to counter Israeli propaganda, video-clipped in their own forcefully closed and evacuated Shuhada street. In this area Israel dispossessed tens of thousands of people from their homes to allow for a Jews-only settlement of a few hundreds. The dance was held in front of the gates of that same closed street. The song's choice was a cry for the world to stop buying into Israel's branding of itself as “advanced” and “enlightened”, a branding which is maintained also by international performances in Israel. Just a few weeks after that dance, the Israeli army locked down adjacent shops [3], collectively punishing Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City. It also banned the peaceful demonstrations from the area. The demonstrations are led by a local youth group [4] which is committed to complete non-violence.

Paul Simon, Don't Break Cultural Boycott Again!

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Dear Paul Simon,

We are members of BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within.[1] We were dismayed to read that you're planning to Preform in Israel at the end of this year.[2] In 2005, Palestinian civil society initiated a call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) from Israeli institutions, companies and academia, as a response to an over-60-year-old human rights crisis, involving military occupation and the development of a crushing system of apartheid, very similar to that practiced in apartheid South Africa.[3] We are Israeli citizens who have chosen to support the call, and we ask you not to break the cultural boycott; Please don't perform in apartheid Israel, until our government reverses its policies.

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