Celebrated film director Ken Loach wrongly condemned by Oxford students
As dozens of artists wrote in a statement of support for Ken Loach on Monday: ‘We cannot fight racism by demonising and silencing supporters of Palestinian rights’.
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Artists stand with Ken Loach and against McCarthyism
We are deeply troubled to learn of a McCarthyite campaign demanding Oxford University cancel a public event with director Ken Loach discussing his distinguished career in film.
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Brian Eno: Artists must call out Germany’s anti-Palestinian witch-hunt
A 2019 parliamentary resolution has had a chilling effect on critics of Israeli policy. Now the cultural sector is speaking up. This article was published in The Guardian under the title ‘Artists like me are being censored in Germany – because we support Palestinian rights’. I am just one of many artists who have been…
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Palestinian artists & cultural organisations call on internationals to cancel engagements in Israel
“Two years ago, just a short drive from apartheid Tel Aviv, Israel destroyed an important cultural centre in Gaza, the Said al-Mishal, with targeted airstrikes. Violations and abuses against Palestinian musicians, poets, actors and other artists are commonplace, including in occupied East Jerusalem.
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Leading artists condemn Israeli raids on Palestinian cultural centres & call for sanctions
Steve Coogan, Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Benjamin Zephaniah, Maxine Peake and Philip Pullman are among 60+ cultural figures to put their names to an open letter condemning attacks on key Palestinian cultural centres.
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Calling for boycott, divestment, sanctions is a human right, rules European Court
Governments and political parties across Europe have sought to criminalise the non-violent movement for BDS. Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights stopped that insidious tendency in its tracks.
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Speak out to stop annexation now
Mercury award-winning band Wolf Alice, authors Philip Pullman, Irvine Welsh, Colm Tóibín, and Selma Dabbagh, actors Harriet Walter and Julie Christie are among cultural figures joining MPs, trade unions and organisations to call on the UK government and political parties to: “support the call of Palestinian civil society organisations for effective measures by all States to stop Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied West Bank”.
Artists for Palestine UK is proud to partner on the launch of this vital call to action, the text of which is reproduced below.
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Leading artists urge end to Israel’s siege of Gaza amid coronavirus crisis
Philip Pullman, Alia Shawkat, Peter Gabriel and 200 others back Amnesty International’s call for a military embargo on Israel “until it fully complies with its obligations under international law”.
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Threats to anti-racism charity lead to Ken Loach stepping down as competition judge
– Show Racism the Red Card commends Loach’s ‘commitment to fighting racism’
– Charity’s funding put at risk by unfounded allegations -
Anti-racism charity confirms Ken Loach as judge for its School Competition
Show Racism the Red Card has resisted pressure to ditch campaigning film-maker Ken Loach as a judge for its annual School Competition.
Eric Cantona, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Mark Rylance, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Dame Marina Warner, Baroness Blackstone, Steve Coogan and many other leading figures have backed Loach. -
Artswatch Palestine: September – December 2019
Our digest of news from Israel’s cultural war against the Palestinians Cádiz – and London On December 20th the press office of the City of Cádiz announced that the Cádiz Court (Juzgado de Instrucción número 1 de Cádiz) had dismissed a case brought by the pro-Israeli organisation, ACOM against the Council’s decision to cancel a…
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Aurora: Don’t be a sword, cancel Tel Aviv
Barby Club in Tel Aviv, where Aurora is booked to perform two shows in November, is one such cultural institution. Barby brazenly wears its complicity like a badge of honour, most clearly when it handed out free t-shirts to Israeli occupation forces engaged in the 2014 massacres in Gaza that left more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 500 children, dead.
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Aldeburgh DocFest disinvites author, invites Israel lobby CEO to discuss ‘GAZA’
On Sunday, Aldeburgh Documentary Festival will host a discussion that follows a screening of the acclaimed documentary ‘GAZA’, a film about Palestinian lives in the besieged enclave. Extraordinarily, the panel is advertised to include the CEO of the UK’s biggest pro-Israel public relations group, BICOM (British Israel Communications and Research). Clearly something has gone very…
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Open letter: the demand that artists disavow BDS is not a legitimate request
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.’
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Palestinian and Israeli Artists Urge Aurora: Don’t Play Israel!
Norwegian pop star Aurora is booked to play Tel Aviv on November 14th and 15th. Palestinian artists, and Israeli artists, have each launched appeals to the singer.
Artists for Palestine UK is pleased to host both letters below.
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Artswatch Palestine: April – August 2019
*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 -
Open letter to UK artists booked for Pop-Kultur Berlin 2019
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.
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Israeli artists: Boycott Pop-Kultur Berlin festival
As Israeli artists, musicians, and filmmakers, we support the Palestinian call to boycott Pop-Kultur Berlin festival 2019, given its complicity with Israel’s racist regime.
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In the age of Trump: connecting our struggles
Palestine Expo 2019 July 6 & 7at London Olympia (map)TICKETS: https://www.palestineexpo.com We are delighted to be presenting a panel at 11am on Sturday 6 July ‘The rise of militant right-wing parties and governments and the climate emergency threaten all of us. Most clearly, they affect peoples and communities, across the globe, which are already marginalised, already…
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Boots Riley, Naomi Klein among 100+ figures demanding free speech on BDS movement for Palestinian rights
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.
