Palestine Israel One Country: Say NO to apartheid

Why boycott Israel?  Most of us grew up learning that Israel is a wonderful place, our public schools and our media have always reinforced that image.  But now as adults we are free to learn more of the facts.  Israel was established in 1948, as an exclusively Jewish state, and over 750,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes. For over 60 years, the Israeli government has used both legal and arbitrary force against the indigenous people that still remained in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and now comprise almost half (5 million) of the population that Israel controls.  (1)

Israeli Jewish citizens enjoy privileges like the legal protection of a democracy, well funded schools, universal healthcare, modern separate roads and high status in society with full protection of the Israeli Army.  A full 20% of the population (1.2 million) in the unoccupied area of Israel is comprised of Palestinians who carry an Israeli ID card. These people must be content with "Jim Crowe" types of laws that enforce housing restrictions, discrimination, underfunded schools, and restrictive marriage laws. 

Approximately 2.4 million Palestinians live in the Israeli-controlled West Bank.  Israel has constructed an intricate system of sectors within this area.  Hundreds of ghettos are isolated from other areas using a system of sniper towers, patrol roads, cement walls, layers of barbed wire, electric fencing and arbitrary and permanent military checkpoints. Man-less drones and frequent night raids inflict fear on a population where approximately half are children.  

Israel's treatment of the 1.5 million people in Gaza has been to bulldoze once-productive farmland and bomb buildings that held preschools and universities.  As the borders have been sealed shut, Gaza has been forced to depend on UN schools, and to subsist on what food supplies Israel decides to let in. Consequently, Gazan's are kept alive, but with a caloric intake that Israel hopes will create a decrease in the birthrate. 

Israel, meanwhile, is using cultural events to create a false image of itself as a progressive, artistic nation with a European flavor.  Israel's Harp Contest is a part of this larger effort.  

The call to boycott was made in 2005, by the majority of Palestinian Civil Society.  The boycott is an urgent call to people of conscious to act to hold Israel accountable for how Israel treats the Palestinian people.  Powerful governments have failed to act, and in fact, have instead enable some of Israel's most violent aggression.  

Part of the boycott asks musicians not to play in Israel. Playing concerts in such places as Tel Aviv is seen as an act of condoning Israel's apartheid system.  This system closely resembles the now-defunct system of apartheid once seen in South Africa.  The call to boycott asks harpists to refrain from participating.  

Boycotts have achieved results in the past.  The California grape boycott in the 1960's helped win union rights for fruit pickers.  Mahatma Gandhi's independence moment in British India employed boycotts to great success.  Musicians refused to play "Sun City," a segregated resort in South Africa, making the world aware that apartheid there must be stopped.

All musicians from all nations are being asked to refrain from playing concerts in Israel.

Musicians are not being asked to do anything heroic.  They are merely being asked not to play.  When a musician plays in Israel, no matter if he or she was invited, was paid or not paid, it is an indication that the musician ignored the call to boycott, and chose to stand instead on the side of the oppressor.  The level of the music may be sublime, and that is all the more reason not to validate Israel's cruel apartheid government by participating. Beautiful music should be used to promote justice, not to enable and legitimize occupation and segregation.  

Although it cannot be verified, strong indications show many musicians have been asked to play in Israel, but have either said no or ignored the invitation.  After 2009, Israel's brutal attack on the civilian population of Gaza, the pressure was on Israel, to try to re-Brand  it's image. Three hundred children were left dead, with a total of 1400 people killed, in the population that Israel was holding captive under military force.  Though media blackouts prevented people in the USA from realizing how extensive the carnage was, many other nations, like Japan for example, allowed the news to reach the people, including interviews with people suffering from Israel's illegal attacks on people using white phosphorus.  

Boycott efforts doubled after Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla in 2010.  As the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, was changing course and heading away from Israel at high speed, Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers at close-range, execution-style. This tragedy happened in International waters.  Many highly respected musicians cancelled their concerts in Israel, or became outspoken in favor of the boycott.  

 

(1) Current demographic figures show: 1.2 million Palestinians with Israeli ID; 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza; 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank; 5 million Israelis excluding Palestinians