Artists call for cultural boycott on Israel

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On February 13, The Guardian published an open letter signed by over 100 artists calling for a cultural boycott of Israel.
“Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too,” comment the authors of the letter. In protest of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and the most recent summer war, no cultural interactions will be made until the country respects international law. The petition supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)who take issue with the following behaviours:
 
  • Denial of its responsibility for the Nakba -- in particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee problem -- and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the refugees and displaced stipulated in and protected by international law;
  • Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions;
  • The entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa.

The issue of Israeli occupation incites one of the most intense debates surrounding current international politics, yet the Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international law, however some critics of the cultural boycott argue that the wrong people are being targeted in the fight against occupation. It can be argued that to engage in cultural relations with the Israeli state is to normalize the illegal and oppressive behaviour carried out by the government.

This isn’t the first time the artistic community has shown solidarity with the people of Palestine. Last summer a group of participating artists rallied to retract sponsorship of the Sao Paulo Biennale by the Israeli Consulate. In Sao Paulo the artists arguments were much the same; to accept sponsorship from the Israeli Consulate would have been to accept the attempt to implicitly whitewash the behaviour of the Israeli state during the summer war on an international cultural platform.

Some 700 signatures have since been amassed on the Artists for Palestine UK website, including names such as Jeremy Deller, Bob and Roberta Smith and Ed Atkins.