Newsletter Archive:.
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Shakespeare Festival challenged for inviting complicit Israeli Theatre
Leading British actors,
directors and authors are challenging the Globe to Globe World Shakespeare
Festival, part of the Cultural Olympiad, over its invitation to an Israeli
theatre company which performs for settlers on illegally occupied
Palestinian land. In an open
letter published in The Guardian (March 29), David Calder, Trevor
Griffiths, Jonathan Miller, Mark Rylance, Emma Thompson and Harriet Walter,
along with 31 others, say the Israeli National Theatre, Habima, “has a
shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements
in Occupied Palestinian Territory”. They call on Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre, on London’s South Bank, to withdraw the invitation “so the festival
is not complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation
of occupied land”.
Habima is scheduled to perform The Merchant of Venice in
Hebrew at the Globe on May 28 and 29 as one of 37 Shakespeare plays in 37
world languages during the seven week festival. The Guardian letter notes
that a number of Israeli theatre professionals have declared that they will
not take part in performances in “halls of culture” built in two large
Israeli settlements. Habima, however, has pledged to continue doing so. “I
sign this letter in support of those artists within Israel who are resisting
the requests to play in the illegal settlements,” said actor Mark Rylance. He
drew a parallel with
earlier
campaigns supporting change in apartheid South Africa.
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 Roger
Waters announces in Brazil World Social Forum-Free Palestine
Legendary UK
musician, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, has reiterated his strong support for the
Palestinian campaign for self-determination in a statement announcing a
forthcoming conference in Brazil to support and expand the global movement for
Palestinian rights.
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 NY
activists protest Batsheva performance in Brooklyn
Eighty New
York human rights activists and cultural workers protested Israel’s Batsheva
Dance Company’s performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). They called
on attendees to boycott Batsheva due to its complicity with Israeli human rights
violations.
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 Carleton Grad Students Vote to Divest from Israeli Occupation
On March 21st
and 22nd, graduate students at Carleton University overwhelmingly voiced their
support for the Palestinian people, by voting for the university’s pension fund
to divest from four companies that are complicit in the occupation of Palestine.
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PACBI Editorial
Debating BDS: On
Normalization and Partial Boycotts
Over the years, PACBI has
consistently outlined its position on normalization in an effort to gain new
allies and to clarify to our partners the premise of Palestinian and Israeli
exchanges. It is important to note that in the BDS movement, there are several
Israeli partners who also support our comprehensive rights under international
law. A key partner is Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from
Within. Furthermore, reading the BDS Call of 2005, endorsed by the
overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society, one can note an explicit
call on conscientious Israelis to join the movement for freedom, justice and
equal rights for all. Therefore, what is important for determining
normalization is not mere collaboration with Israelis, but rather, the substance
and premise of this collaboration.
Partial or
Full Boycott of Israel?
After failing
to slow the spread of BDS, motivated by genuine fear of the demise of Zionism,
and with an explicit “save apartheid Israel” agenda, some so-called left-leaning
Zionists have recently tried to muddy the waters by suggesting a
Zionist-friendly boycott to undermine the Palestinian-led BDS movement [9],
which is attracting an increasing number of younger Jewish activists in the
West, especially on college campuses. BDS is an ethically-consistent
rights-based movement that is anchored in international law and universal human
rights. As such, BDS rejects and cannot coexist with racism of any type,
including Zionism. A “Zionist BDS” is as logical as a “racist equality”!
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UN body "appalled" by Israel’s
racial segregation policies
UN Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) report indicates that
Israel’s racial prejudice can be found in almost every facet of Israeli life in
violation of the right to equality. |
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Seattle LGBT Commission Cancels “Pinkwashing” Event
Seattle
LGBT Commission canceled a pinkwashing event sponsored by the Israeli Consulate
and right-wing Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, following similar
cancellations elsewhere in the US. |
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"The New Black" by The Mavrix - Official Release
In a first
ever musical collaboration between South Africa and Palestine, South African
band, The Mavrix, and Palestinian Oud player, Mohammed Omar, have released a
music video called "The New Black". |
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Video |
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