Dear Julien Clerc,

We are Israeli citizens, active against our government's policies of
racism, occupation and apartheid.

We know and love your music, and we admire your efforts for the promotion
of human rights principles, especially as a goodwill ambassador for the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). W
e would like to ask you not to perform in Tel Aviv for now. Please postpone
your concert to a time when our democracy is respected by our government.
he Palestinian people know very well what it means to be homeless and
stateless refugees. Several neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, not far from where
your concert is scheduled to take place,  were founded on the ruins of
Palestinian villages, whose inhabitants had been expelled or forced to flee
in 1948 during the Nakba. Many Palestinian refugees, or their descendants,
reside nowadays in refugee camps in Gaza, which is under Israel's
strangulating military control, or in the West Bank, which is under
Israel's direct brutal occupation.

The Nakba is an ongoing process: The Israeli government displaces and
expels Palestinian from numerous areas under its control. in order to
maintain a Jewish majority over as much land as possible.

For example:

 * Our government is now pursuing the expulsion of Palestinian communities
in the South Hebron Hills through the declaration of their habitat as a
military firing zone (http://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/918). In
the meantime, these people, like other Palestinians under occupation, are
being tortured, abused and oppressed by the Israeli army.

* Just this month, our government has voted in favour of a large scale
racist plan to uproot tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens of Israel in
the southern Negeb area, in order to build communities which will be
inhabited mostly by Jewish citizens of Israel (
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_Prawer/)
There are many aspects to our government's ongoing racist, violent
policies. We would also like to note Israel's illegal imprisonment and
abuse of of Palestinian children
(
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/palestinian-detained-c...
)

Furthermore, Palestinian fans of your music who live in Gaza or in the West
Bank under Israel's occupation are not even allowed to cross the so-called
"green line"and come to Tel Aviv for concerts such as yours.

In response to Israel's violations of human rights and international law,
more than 150 Palestinian civil society NGOs have called for a global
campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). As part of the
campaign, international artists are asked not to perform in Israel until
our government reverses its policies.

This campaign follows a similar struggle several decades ago against
apartheid South Africa. Tel Aviv is the new Sun City, and we are asking
artists like you not to play in this city. Just like apartheid south
Africa, the Israeli government tries to exploit international performances
in Israel, such as yours, to market it as a "cool, friendly and democratic
place".

 In view of the above, we would like to ask you not to perform in Tel Aviv
for now, Please postpone your concert to a time when democracy is respected
by our government.

We will gladly address any questions or comments you may have.

Sincerely,

Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (aka Boycott from
Within)

*

boycottisrael.info
[email protected]