Dear Jamiroquai,
We write to ask you to cancel your concert in Israel. We do so knowing that band members are not indifferent to the situation in Palestine. In a 2008 interview, Jay Kay said, ‘Ask me something else; Ask me about the situation in Palestine’.
If we asked you about the situation in Palestine today, you’d probably know that it has greatly deteriorated since 2008, with three prolonged bombing campaigns by Israel on Gaza. The besieged Strip is, according to the United Nations, ‘unlivable’, and there’s an ever expanding colonisation of land in the Palestinian West Bank.
Israel’s destruction of the fabric of Palestinian society also manifests itself in house demolitions, both in the West Bank and inside Israel itself. There are mass arrests including of hundreds of children, and the constant military presence brings beatings, torture and maiming into the majority of Palestinian families.
But there is, too, an inspiring beacon of nonviolent resistance. From demonstrations in West Bank villages, to Gaza’s Great March of Return, to hunger strikes in Israel’s prisons, to Palestinian artists coming together for cultural resistance and a unifying expression of indigenous pride, to the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Palestinians teach each one of us that we can play our part in the movement for freedom, justice and equality.
Inspired by the boycott movement in apartheid South Africa, the Palestinian people ask that artists refrain from entertaining apartheid Israel. Palestinians pay with life and limb for their protests, and they ask for your support. Will you stand with them? Will you cancel your concert in Israel?
Artists for Palestine UK
Reblogged this on penelopap.
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Hi,Jay Kay
Please stand up for justice,against all forms of Racism &oppression by not playing in Israel.
Sincerely
Patrick
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Perhaps people should boycott certain musicians. Not a unique idea; but otherwise some people who insist on playing in the State of Israel seem unmoved by pleas & requests & opinions.
I was never a fan of this person/band (trying to be polite here & barely familiar w/ them); but I had to do that w/ Radiohead even before the official BDS movement – due to their stance on Israel. (I left my little dissertation on the reasons for that on this very blog).
Funnily after a short while I could no longer stand to hear them (or their solo work). Sort of like getting really ill from a food you once loved; then encountering it again.
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Do not sing for an appartheid “state”.
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Don’t sell your soul out.
The oppressed people are defencless alone and need international support otherwise they will be systematically wiped out.
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Ne soutenez pas la politique raciste et colonialiste israélienne. Merci un fan
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Please reconsider entertaining oppressors, murderers and land thieves.
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Sometime in the not too distant future you will be judged for the choices you’ve made. You know right from wrong so do the right thing. You know it makes sense.
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Please don’t sing in a racist and cruel state! stand up for the palestinian people and claim freedom for them!
A fan
#boycottisrael
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Don’t play there
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