Dear Bryan Ferry,
We are an Israeli group called BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within. Undoubtedly, our name discloses the intent of this letter: We hereby invite you to join the growing international movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel - a movement that has undertaken to respond to the Palestinian call to apply these nonviolent measures against Israel, until the following is accomplished:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
We believe that the oppressive circumstances in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel require that we all shoulder responsibility for our fellow human beings. We therefore ask you, please lend your voice to ending this oppression.
Although the BDS movement is now widespread - widely accepted by the international civil society, we are not surprised to find out that people don't quite understand the purpose of the call, or even resent being called upon to support it. Even as Israelis we don’t witness first hand the oppression of the Palestinians, though it is practiced a few miles away from our safe homes; we don't see Arab-Palestinian culture in national museums or theaters, either. And even our academia is blind to the Palestinians’ plight, being instead rather neck-deep in developing new and improved methods of population control, or otherwise used to justify or whitewash these endeavors.
No wonder other people may still be oblivious to the Palestinians’ repression. Consider, just one instance - the fact that Palestinians are prisoners of a captive economy, which revokes their right to choose their own destiny. Although this by no means exhausts the list of restrictions enforced on the Palestinians by the Israeli military rule, it could still be eye-opening to just focus for a moment on what it means to be operating in a captive economy. Operating in a captive economy means that you can't export your produce, unless you export it through your occupier, to whose siege policy, taxation, and constant threat of being cut off you are subjected, while he (mis)uses your name to paint a peachy picture of coexistence. It also means that you are either unemployed because you have been designated "terrorist" - an excuse to shoot you at will - or you have to build others’ houses on your own land which is now expropriated. This in fact means that you are forced to build illegal settlements which now offer new housing and employment opportunities to others - housing and employment opportunities which you are denied and which often also benefit the army which keeps you under siege.
You might wonder why Palestinians called upon the world to help them instead of turning to the court. The court, however, is just another system practicing apartheid, whether in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories. Had the Palestinians not been discriminated against in the courts, they wouldn't have had the need to turn to the international community.
Therefore, Bryan Ferry, we turn to you. Please do not collaborate with apartheid and military occupation. Please cancel your performance in Israel until everyone inhabiting this little patch of land may enjoy your music. That day will come sooner if you choose to boycott Israel.
On Behalf of BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian Call from Within,
Oshra Bar
Ronnie Barkan
Iris Hefets
Shir Hever
Eytan Lerner
Ofer Neiman
Jonathan Pollak
Ayala Shani
Tal Shapira