Artswatch Palestine: February-March 2017
ARTWATCH DIGEST: FEBRUARY – MARCH 2017
* Raiding Jenin
* Raiding Aida
* Shutting down a Theatre
* Controlling the film industry
* Putting poetry on trial
* Making Music
Censorship & silencing
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Immediate Threat to Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech
These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom. As academics with positions at UK universities, we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for more than 50 years. It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel, under the thin disguise of concern about antisemitism.
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ARTSWATCH December 2016 – January 2017
Regev Watch Miri Regev, Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport, has commented , 27th December, on the change of presidency in the United States: ‘Obama is history,’ said Regev. ‘We have Trump.’ Christian Viveros-Fauné, writing in Artnet, suggests that ‘like Trump, the Likud politician consistently engages in a brazen, counter-factual brand of right-wing populism’. Viveros-Fauné charts the growing scope…
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Call for support for ‘Ambulance’ director Mohamed Jabaly
ARTISTS FOR PALESTINE UK STATEMENT The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) and the Norwegian Immigration Tribunal have refused to grant Palestinian film-maker Mohamed Jabaly a work visa to allow him to tour with his first film, Ambulance (2016), and to make a second film with his Norwegian producers, in Tromsø, Norway. Artists for Palestine UK (APUK)…
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Mohammad Abu Sakha: in prison for making children happy
One year after he was arrested by Israeli forces, Palestinian circus teacher Mohammad Abu Sakha (pictured,on left) is still behind bars, and without charges.
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One Hundred Years and Counting: Britain, Balfour, and the Cultural Repression of Palestinians
This report looks at the repression of Palestinian cultural expression by Israel and collusion and censorship here in the UK by British government ministers. It traces this relationship back to the wording of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The briefing offers an essential perspective for understanding Israel’s attempts to erase the Palestinian past and future, and proposes practical steps groups such as ours can take here in the UK to end the silencing of Palestinian voices and perspectives.
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ARTSWATCH November 2016
The dangers of satire A blog by ‘John Brown’ in +972 magazine (27thNovember) reports on recent experiences of the Bedouin blogger Anas Abudaabes. The wild fires that swept through Northern Israel in mid-November provoked some Facebook posters in neighbouring countries into words of celebration. Abudaabes responded satirically, writing that the way to earn the respect of posters like these…
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ARTSWATCH October 2016
‘The National Puppet Theatre of Israel’ Habima, Israel’s National Theatre, has announced that in mid-November it will put on a show in Kiryat Arba. Kiryat Arba is a settlement in territory illegally occupied by Israel, and a place which, in the words of an editorial in Ha’aretz (26th October), ‘has become a symbol of the injustices of the…
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ARTSWATCH August 2016
Gaza’s celebrated Dawaween refused exit permits [photo Shadi Alqarra] Borders closed to musicians from Gaza Israel opens the door to Western performers, but as far as Palestinian artists are concerned, the borders are closed. Middle East Eye (23rd August) reports on two cases where singers and musicians from Gaza have been denied access to other parts of occupied…
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‘Speak Out’ – or ‘Shut-Up’?
Leanne Muhamad, a student at Wanstead High School who is British-Palestinian, won the “Speak out” challenge after giving this impressive performance to enthusiastic applause. But one day later, the Speakers Trust decided Leanne will no longer be sent through to the grand final of the public speaking competition. It seems that giving a personal account of the…
