Open letter to Aachen Mayor, Marcel Philipp: ‘We are scandalized that you’d make your approval of the city’s decision to honor artist Walid Raad dependant upon his disavowal of the BDS movement.’
*Art and power
* Palfest re-formed
* Borders and visas
* Reinventing Jerusalem
*A spectacle of demolition
*A spectacle of punishment
* Lopez performs in Israel, and Egypt
Artists for Palestine UK has joined the call from Palestinians, and also from Israeli artists and Israeli human rights defenders, and from LGBTQI+ campaigners in Berlin, for participating artists to withdraw from Pop-Kultur Berlin 2019, in protest at the festival’s continued partnership with the Israeli embassy.
Attempts in Germany to impose political conditions on artists who support Palestinian rights, particularly targeting black, POC and queer artists, comprise a shameful trend of censorship, anti-Palestinian repression, and attacks on freedom of conscience.
Our digest of news from Israel’s cultural war against the Palestinians
Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa (pictured) was on her way to Palestine Literature Festival when she was denied entry to her homeland, held in a prison cell, then flown back to the United States. Our digest of news from Israel’s cultural war against the Palestinians Dareen Tatour Dareen Tatour, Palestinian poet and citizen of Israel, was…
Artswatch: June-August report-
*Gaza – The War Against Culture.
*Gaza – The War Over Meaning
*Gaza – The Forbidden Subject
*Tatour – The Forbidden Poet
*Nakba – The Forbidden History
*Daniel Barenboim: Israel Is An Apartheid State
*Artists In Opposition To Israel’s Policies
The full length version of the letter affirms that, ‘Boycotts which are anchored in universal human rights and aimed at achieving justice for marginalized and oppressed communities are a legitimate nonviolent tactic. They have been used worldwide, including against apartheid in South Africa and the Jim Crow segregation laws in the United States.’
“Regrettably, Young Fathers will not appear at Ruhrtrienalle Festival this year as the organisers have decided to cancel our show due to our views opposing the current Israeli Government’s grave violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people and our support of the non-violent and anti racist human rights movement, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
We feel it is a wrong and deeply unfair decision by the festival to take this stance and to also ask us to distance ourselves from our human rights principles in order for the appearance to go ahead…”
“We, filmmakers, artists and journalists call on our cultural institutions to uphold ethical standards: they should refuse to provide platforms for events sponsored by a regime that is guilty of systematic, large-scale human rights violations. “