Artists Against Apartheid - Equal Rights and Justice for All

Sat 27 Feb 2010

Tadamon Montreal Rally 500 Artists in Solidarity

Posted by admin under Art, BDS, Cartoon, Cutural Boycott, Dance, De-Branding, Demonstration, Discussion, Exhibition, Film, Hip-Hop, Multimedia, Musicians, Performance, Photography, Poetry, Satire, Theatre
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Montreal, Canada – February 25th 2010. Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents…

…Today, a diverse array of artists in Montreal, from filmmakers, musicians and dancers to poets, authors and painters, are joining the international movement against Israeli apartheid. On the streets, in concert halls, in words and in song, we commit to fighting against apartheid and call upon all artists and cultural producers across the country and around the world to adopt a similar position in this global struggle.

1: Aidan Girt, musician, 1-Speed Bike
2: Alexander Moskos, musician, AIDS Wolf
3: Chole Lum, musician, AIDS Wolf
4: Yannick Desranleau, musician, AIDS Wolf
5: Esmeralda Súmar Jara, Amérythmes
6: Karen Lliana Lemus, Amérythmes
7: Ronald Lemus, Amérythmes
8: José Sermeno Rosales, Amérythmes
9: Daviyd Yisrael, Amérythmes
….
491: David Widgington, journalist/filmmaker
492: Ezra Winton, founder Cinema Politica
493: Britt Wray, artist
494: Gary Worsley, founder Alien 8 Recordings
495: Dexter X, filmmaker/musician
496: Eileen Young, visual artist
497: Karen Young, singer/songwriter
498: Kevin Yuen Kit Lo, graphic designer
499: Michael Zaidan, filmmaker
500: Kim Zombik, singer

Read the Full call signed by 500 Montreal Artists here

to add your support to this letter or to present questions or suggestions please write to info(at)tadamon.ca

Tadamon! (Arabic for “solidarity”), is a Montreal-based collective which works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality and justice in the ‘Middle East’ and in diaspora communities in Montreal and beyond. Tadamon! has presented the ‘Artists Against Apartheid’ series of performances in the Montreal area, which has been instrumental in raising awareness of Israeli apartheid and building the momentum needed to make this trailblazing call from the Montreal arts community.

Tags: 500 Artists Against Israeli Apartheid, Montreal, Tadamon

Wed 23 Dec 2009

Found Art Criminalized in Palestine-Israel

Posted by admin under Art, Demonstration
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Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was indicted in an Israeli military court yesterday. Abu Rahmah was slapped with an arms possession charge for collecting tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army, in the creation of this sculpture:

Photo: Oren Ziv - ActiveStills

Update2: ‘A Letter From My Holding Cell‘ February 17th, 2010:

Dear Friends and Supporters,
It has been two months now since I was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken from my home. Today news has reached Ofer Military Prison that the apartheid wall on Bil’in’s land will finally be moved and construction has begun on the new route. This will return half of the land that was stolen from our village. For those of us in Ofer , imprisoned for our protest against the wall, this victory makes the suffering of being here easier to bear. After actively resisting the theft of our land by the Israeli apartheid wall and settlements every week for five years now, we long to be standing along side our brothers and sisters to mark this victory and the fifth anniversary of our struggle… [read the whole letter here]

Update1: Abdallah Abu Rahmah has written a letter from prison:

“To all our friends,
I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope. I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our nonviolent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel’s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment…” [read at Electronic Intifada...]

Tags: Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Activestills, Arundhati Roy, Found Art, Peace Is War, Popular Struggle

Mon 15 Feb 2010

Shine A Light for Palestinian Freedom

Posted by admin under Cutural Boycott, De-Branding, Musicians
[2] Comments

Elton John is scheduled to perform in Apartheid Israel on June 17th, 2010. This performance would undermine the international cultural boycott of Israel, which was initiated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), as a means of non-violent resistance to Apartheid and Colonialism.

In addition to normalizing the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Zionist government of Israel, Sir Elton’s performance is sponsored by Israel Discount Bank, whose “trading room and other computer services are located on land stolen from the Palestinian village of Bil‘in by the illegal settlement of Modiin Illit…[and which] finances construction in the settlements of Har Homa, Beitar Illit and Ma‘ale Adumim…” (Source: PACBI)

PACBI has issued a statement asking Elton John to honor the cultural boycott: “The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) was genuinely troubled to learn that that you are scheduled to perform in Israel in June, in violation of the widely-endorsed Palestinian Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel. We call upon you, as a world famous artist and a public supporter of key human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Oxfam, not to perform in Israel, a state that maintains an illegal and inhumane system of occupation, colonization and apartheid and that has been widely accused by leading UN experts and human rights organizations, including Amnesty, of committing war crimes and other grave violations of human rights…” [read full statement]

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) initiated an advocacy campaign, through their open letter, in which they encourage Elton John to “…read what Judge Goldstone said about the onslaught on Gaza; what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been saying for decades about the crimes committed against the Palestinians. Of course the Israeli state denies it has a case to answer, though it’s knee-deep in ethnic cleansing and land-theft and the endless daily suffocating of Palestinian lives and hopes.”

Carlos Santana was scheduled to perform in Israel in 2010, but cancelled due to “scheduling problems”. While Elton John has indicated, in conjunction with Amnesty International, that “we should all stand up and speak out for basic human rights”, there are no “advocacy offsets” that may be purchased to redeem the normalization of apartheid.

Send your letters of concern to:
Elton John management: info@wabbie.com
Elton John homepage: editor@eltonjohn.com

Join the Facebook Group

Tags: BRICUP, Cairo Declaration, Elton John, Israel Discount Bank, PACBI

Thu 11 Feb 2010

The heART of the Conflict – Feb 21st in NYC

Posted by admin under Cartoon, Fundraiser, Performance, Poetry, Theatre
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the heart of the conflict

February 21st, 7pm-9pm

@ Teatro Iati

64 E. 4th Street

New York, NY

the heart of the conflict, a packed evening of live music, free food and drink, art, poetry and performance. This one-time fundraiser will feature an exclusive sneak-peak at scenes from Poliglot’s ground-breaking documentary theatre work, NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH, presented by an incredible new cast. Enjoy a silent auction, an exhibit of graphic novels created by refugees in the West Bank about growing up Palestinian, the powerful slam poetry of Remi Kanazi, and live music by the Fatoosh Ensemble + Guest Artists, an eclectic musical blend of jazz, rock, pop, and Middle Eastern flavors.

All proceeds benefit NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH, set to premiere Off-Broadway in June 2010. For special $20 discounted tickets, go to http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=HEA10 and use promo code ‘kffyeh‘

www.poliglottheater.org

Tags: Heart of the Conflict, Poliglot Theater, Remi Kanazi

Mon 8 Feb 2010

Poetry of Palestine performance in Ramallah

Posted by admin under Performance, Poetry
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WED. FEB. 10: “Poetry of Palestine”–a monthly literary performance. This month featuring Remi Kanazi, Tala Abu Rahmeh and Boikutt. Introducing for the first time Laila Shikaki with interludes by Tashweesh. Starts at 7 sharp. Cafe La Vie in Ramallah (between the Dwarsay3 and Orthodoxy Club), Palestine.

Tags: Boikutt, Laila Shikaki, Poetry of Palestine, Remi Kanazi, Spoken Word, Tala Abu Rahmed, Tashweesh

Fri 5 Feb 2010

Thank You Carlos Santana

Posted by admin under Cutural Boycott, Musicians
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Thank You Carlos Santana

Artists Against Apartheid and the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel would like to extend our thanks to Carlos Santana for honoring the call for the Cultural Boycott of Israel, by electing not to perform in the apartheid state. The call for cultural boycott was successful in creating international accountability for human rights violations in apartheid South Africa, and is now being applied in the case of Israel.

The Israeli state has repeatedly evidenced that it relies on artistic propaganda to improve its “international brand” as a pluralistic democracy, all the while continuing state sponsored ethnic cleansing. Performing in Israel, as if it were just another stop on the tour, normalizes the apartheid practiced by the Israeli government, and disregards Palestinian led campaigns to organize international solidarity against it (www.bdsmovement.net).

All artists are requested to boycott Israel as a tour destination, except when performing in solidarity with the popular struggle against occupation, dispossession and apartheid.

Cultural figures like Roger Waters, Arundhati Roy, Brian Eno, John Berger, and Ken Loach have expanded their advocacy to publicly hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and war crimes. We hope that Santana, as an advocate of human rights, will join Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others engaged in the nonviolent struggle for equal rights and justice for the Palestinian people in endorsing the cultural boycott of Israel.

Artists Against Apartheid – www.artistsagainstapartheid.org
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel – www.usacbi.org

Download PDF

Tags: BDS, Beyonce, Cultural Boycott, Elton John, Equal Rights and Justice, Israel, Ken Loach, Non-Violence, PACBI, Palestine, Pixies, Rod Stewart, Roger Waters, Santana, Tutu, USACBI

Wed 13 Jan 2010

DAM Hip-Hop in East Jerusalem

Posted by admin under Demonstration, Hip-Hop, Performance
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The show marks another event held in Sheikh Jarrah to gain support for and raise awareness of the tragedies wrought on the Palestinian families in the neighbourhood. The weekly Friday march from Zion Square in West Jerusalem to Sheikh Jarrah have been gathering momentum, with the demonstrators numbering in their hundreds. Dozens of Israeli and international activists have been arrested for their participation in the demonstrations and ongoing activist presence in Sheikh Jarrah, including American citizen Ryan Olander who has been held in Ramle prison since his arrest on the 18th of December and threatened with deportation.

Background

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

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Sun 3 Jan 2010

Mass Obliteration – Mashom

Posted by admin under Music Video, Musicians
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Mass Obliteration is an Italian death metal band, born in Rome during april 2006 from the cousins Andrea and Luca, who moved from their hometown Gaeta (where the Cavalera brothers from Sepultura have their origin too) to the capital, deluded by their past projects, aiming to create extreme and original music. They created this song “Mashom” and video, which is dedicated to Anarchists Against The Wall and “all the ones who fight against the apartheid in Palestine”:

Mashom

They build walls, they steal the land
The world ignores, fuckin deaf and blind

The world ignores the tragedy of the exiles
Since Six days war Israel denies
No passage to Ramallah… The invader now forbids
They’re all ghurba*. No way for the refugees

Solo: G. Constantino

They build walls, they steal the land
The world ignores, fuckin deaf and blind
“I hate the frontiers, I hate the borders
Borders of the body, of the writing, of the behaviors,
Of the states…”**

People lead to famine, convicted in a cage
Sheltered by U.S..A, the executioners take no blame
They build walls, they steal the land
The world ignores, fuckin’ deaf and blind

*refugee
**Mourid Barghouti – “I Saw Ramallah“

Tags: Anarchists Against The Wall, Gaeta, Mashom, Mass Obliteration

Tue 29 Dec 2009