Film writer and director Mike Leigh has slammed Thom Yorke and Radiohead for ignoring Palestinian suffering, two days ahead of their controversial Israel gig.
Last week Radiohead front-man Yorke had defended the band’s decision to play in Israel and ignore the Palestinian picket-line, arguing that music was about ‘crossing borders’ and ‘shared humanity’.
As UK band Radiohead prepares to perform in Israel on July 19 in direct breach of the Palestinian boycott, leading boycott supporter Ken Loach has faced defamatory attacks on his integrity.
Thom Yorke makes a statement justifying Radiohead’s forthcoming appearance in Israel – but once again fails to make any mention of the Palestinians who suffer under Israel’s regime.
Artswatch Palestine: April-May 2017.
* Pinkwashing rejected
* The trial of Dareen Tatour
* The detention of Abu Sakha
* The banning of International Women’s Day
* A war of aggression on Amazon
* Ten years of PalFest
* On the red carpet in Gaza
* Regev’s dress at Cannes
Radiohead’s concert is itself a political statement, and a deeply divisive one. It’s telling the Israeli public they really don’t need to bother their heads with the Occupation and the boring old story of Palestinian suffering.
OPEN LETTER TO RADIOHEAD: “Do what artists did in South Africa’s era of oppression – stay away until apartheid is over.”
MEDIA: Eddie Izzard Misses Palestinian Marathon Following Backlash Over Tel Aviv Gig, Hollywood Reporter 31/3/2017 RELATED: ‘Israel bans Gaza runners from Palestine Marathon in Bethlehem’ Middle East Monitor March 30, 2017 Palestinians run for right to free movement in Bethlehem marathon 31.03.2017 ‘In a development saturated with political and emotional charge, South African runner Mervin Steenkamp came in first, for…
Fans of UK comedian Eddie Izzard, admired for his record of opposing Apartheid in South Africa, are disappointed he has so far failed to respect the Palestinian boycott of Israeli Apartheid.
Banksy, artist turned hotelier, has responded to an appeal from Palestinians, and withdrawn an invitation to English DJ Fatboy Slim to perform at a street party outside the new Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem.
Fatboy Slim scheduled a Bethlehem appearance the day after his planned March 12 performance in Tel Aviv. Artists for Palestine UK (APUK), have appealed to the DJ to cancel his Israeli show.
UPDATE 09.03.2017 From Israeli Citizens: Radiohead, Please Don’t Play Tel-Aviv Open letter from Israeli citizens to Radiohead : “We urge you to cancel your performances in Israel and not grant your seal of approval to Israel’s ongoing crimes and human rights violations.” 09.03.2017 London, 7 March 2017 Calls mount for Radiohead to cancel Israel gig Artists for Palestine…
For as long as artists like Kapoor continue to accept these obscenely large gifts from a state that practices ethnic cleansing, they gift Israel the social license to pursue its ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.
Artists write to DJ Fatboy Slim asking him to cancel his forthcoming show in Tel Aviv. Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, said recently in an interview that his criteria for accepting a gig means it has to ‘fulfil the 5 f’s’ – a first, a favour for a friend, fun, finance, food. Playing the settler-colonial state may be ‘a first’ for Fatboy, but it’s only going to be ‘fun’ if he ignores the experience of Palestinians including those within Israel’s borders. We hope he thinks again.
‘…The Chemical Brothers move around the world in complete freedom, but the price of the settlers’ ‘sense of security’ in occupied territory is enormous for Palestinian artists and their communities. Their freedom of movement is stymied at every turn – vast military checkpoints; roads to towns and villages deliberately blocked; land stolen in the name of ‘security’; and so on.’
Dear Oxfam,
We’ve been reflecting on Oxfam’s unwillingness to take any kind of stand against Baaba Maal’s imminent performance in occupied East Jerusalem. Your last letter to Artists for Palestine UK said, ‘Oxfam’s policy does not extend to supporting a boycott of Israel’. But this is to misunderstand the meaning of Baaba Maal’s action and its very real challenge to Oxfam policy. Oxfam is behaving inconsistently with respect to Israeli violations of international law.
In his letter, while declaring to be “flattered” by the choice of his music for the work, Eno says that its use creates “a serious conflict” for him, since according to the composer, “the Israeli government uses art to promote ‘Brand Israel’ and divert attention from the occupation of Palestinian lands”
‘…You are a Global Ambassador for Oxfam. ‘This year,’ says Oxfam’s website, ‘Baaba Maal is calling on world leaders to Stand As One with the more than 60 million people who have been forced to flee their homes by conflicts, violence and persecution.’
You must know that among the 60 million, are 5 million Palestinian refugees who are scattered around the world, most living in refugee camps, and not allowed to return to the homes which they were forced to leave…’
The 2016 Edinburgh Fringe once again offers a much-needed platform for Palestinian artists to demonstrate their talent, creativity and vitality despite the extraordinary difficulties they face in their daily lives and in producing, exhibiting and performing their work. But this year “the biggest arts festival on the planet” has shocked friends of Palestine with a last minute addition to the…
“I’ve been a fan of Baaba Maal for around a quarter century. The thought of him playing in apartheid Israel instead of showing solidarity with the Palestinian people makes no sense to me.”
Paul Hellyer, WOMAD audience member
Artists for Palestine UK, working together with campaigners in France, Senegal, Palestine and Israel, has addressed an open letter to the renowned West African musician Baaba Maal, urging him to withdraw from a planned appearance at an Israeli musical festival in the Old City of Jerusalem in September. A French language version of the letter…
Artists for Palestine UK has written to the organisers of the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe enclosing a letter of protest from the founder of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem, over the inclusion on the Fringe programme of an event billed as “probably the most significant pro-Israel advocacy event of the year…