FAQS

Does the Artists’ Pledge for Palestine call for a blanket boycott of Israeli artists?   

The Palestinian-led boycott movement targets complicity, not identity. There is no blanket boycott of Israeli artists. Individuals, groups and organisations that explicitly support full rights for all Palestinians under international law are not subject to boycott. The Pledge is a refusal to accept partnerships and invitations from institutions that are complicit with, or silent about the Occupation and its policies against Palestinians.

I am an artist and I do not always have control over who buys the art I produce, nor the circulation of that work once it has been sold. Am I in a position to sign the Pledge?

Yes, you are. You should take the step of making your work unavailable in Israel where you are able to do that. But individual artists may not control the circulation of cultural products in a global market and may not control sales of their artwork by third parties. The focus of this boycott is  the refusal to collaborate with Israeli institutions that are complicit with, or silent about, policies including the crimes of apartheid and genocide against Palestinians.

I would like to sign the Pledge but my book has already been published in Israel / an artwork I made is already in a museum / I performed there just six months ago.

The boycott does not operate retrospectively, and public adherence to the Pledge today is a positive political act in itself.

What if I unwittingly receive money linked to the Israeli state via the film company I am doing some work for?

Signing up to the Pledge means saying ‘No’ if you are offered a commission, prize, residency or other role funded by the Israeli embassy, a municipal authority or any official body or cultural institution that does not explicitly oppose Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians.

You may wish to take steps to avoid more indirect money flows, however the purpose of the boycott is not to feel ‘pure’ (who is?) by not being sullied by contact with a regime one doesn’t like, but rather to establish some principles whose application will register as a collective protest and as a rejection of the complicity of our governments. PACBI offer guidelines that people should follow and which the organizers of this pledge themselves follow.