The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on all participating artists in Pop-Kultur Berlin festival to withdraw, due to its ongoing partnership with the Israeli embassy. Fourteen artists from six different countries withdrew from the last two editions of the festival for this reason, just as they would have withdrawn from an event in Germany partnered with the South African regime during the height of apartheid there.

Indeed, Israel gave constitutional status to its long-established apartheid regime against Palestinians with last year’s “Jewish Nation-State” law. Emboldened by unprecedented levels of support from the Trump administration, Netanyahu recently declared that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens” and promised to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

UN investigators have said that Israeli snipers’ intentional targeting of unarmed Palestinian protesters in the besieged Gaza Strip, including medics, journalists, children, and those with disabilities, “may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity”. Yet Israel has not been held to account. Its brutal siege of two million Palestinians in Gaza continues, and its impunity on the world stage remains intact.

This impunity is why thousands of artists now support the cultural boycott of Israel’s regime and complicit institutions, with Israel lobby groups privately acknowledging its impact and growth. But regardless of whether or not a particular artist supports or endorses the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, everyone has an ethical obligation to do no harm to nonviolent struggles for human rights by not undermining them and to defend freedom of expression.

Israel’s far-right regime of apartheid, occupation and settler-colonialism explicitly whitewashes its oppression against Palestinians through culture, including by partnering with supposedly progressive festivals. Yet Pop-Kultur organisers have repeatedly made clear, in stark, vulgar and anti-Palestinian terms, that partnering with Israel is more important than maintaining its own artistic programme.

Indeed, the festival can no longer attract the diverse range of progressive artists that it could just a few years ago. Its organisers are screening all potential artists, excluding all those who might take issue with the festival’s collaboration with Israel’s regime of oppression. For this reason, we anticipate fewer cancellations this year. But we and our partners in Germany and around the world, including progressive Jewish and Israeli groups and figures, will continue the campaign to boycott Pop-Kultur festival until it ends the partnership.

As the far-right continues to rise across the world, anti-racist movements like BDS are under increasing anti-democratic attack, including in Germany. We agree with Martin Luther King Jr., that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. We urge all participating artists to consider the ‘indivisibility of justice’ and to refuse to undermine the peaceful struggle for Palestinian human rights.

Original Statement

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PACBI’S CALL FOR Boycott Pop-Kultur Festival 2019

Berlin Against Pinkwashing joins the call by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) for all participating artists to withdraw from Berlin’s 2019 Pop-Kultur festival. Due to its continued Israeli Embassy partnership, Pop-Kultur allows the State of Israel to paint itself as a progressive entity and distract the world from its apartheid state and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

As a mixed multi-ethnic group of queer and queer-allied activists, we see it as fundamentally important to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civil society in their peaceful protest against systematic oppression by the Israeli state.

Israel is currently breaking international law by occupying Palestinian territory and has made the systemic exclusion of Palestinian voices – among them women*, LGBTIQ* and GNC people – public policy. At the same time it has set up a multi-million dollar budget campaign aimed at branding itself an egalitarian, LGBTIQ*-friendly state. This state, however, only provides LGBTIQ* rights for an exclusive group based on race, religion and nationality.

What’s more, the Palestinian fight for freedom and justice is undoubtedly a feminist issue too: Palestinian women are forced to give birth waiting at checkpoints, Israeli settlement authorities bulldoze family homes, and many women experience sexual assault at the hands of the Israeli army.

As artist Emel Al-Mathlouthi remarked upon withdrawing from Pop-Kultur in 2017: “As things get tougher inside and outside Palestine, what each one of us can always do is show solidarity and empathy, as artists it starts by being true and faithful.”

Whilst we warmly welcome a festival that creates space for otherwise marginalised queer and POC voices, we are disappointed that such a space would become an advertising platform for the Israeli embassy. Berlin Against Pinkwashing once again applauds the decision of 14 artists from 6 different countries who withdrew from the festival in 2017 and 2018. We also note that the 2019 Pop-Kultur line-up lacks the range of progressive artists present in the line-ups of previous years, suggesting how representation and diversity at Pop-Kultur have been compromised by the festival’s dedicated partnership with the Israeli State.

Regardless of the extent of the funding or involvement of the Israeli embassy, any cooperation that allows a state maintaining an illegal occupation to paint itself as a progressive haven by providing cultural funding is indefensible. We call on all participating artists in Pop-Kultur’s 2019 line-up to withdraw in support of Palestinian human rights.

“Through our music, we seek to resist violence, persecution and discrimination of any kind against each other.“ – Islam chipsy & EEK

Original Statement

Open letter from Israeli citizens to artists participating in the Pop-Kultur festival in Berlin

August 2019

We are over a thousand citizens of Israel who oppose our government’s policies of colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. We write to you in support of The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) call on all participating artists in Pop-Kultur Berlin festival to withdraw, due to its ongoing partnership with the Israeli embassy [2].

We support this campaign since it follows universal principles of human rights, including opposition to any form of racism [3]. We, as Israelis, also ask you to cancel your participation in the festival.

Israel openly and actively uses culture as part of its state branding campaign strategy [4]. The Israeli foreign ministry openly acknowledges spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually to improve Israel’s image. “Brand Israel” was conceptualised a decade ago, in order to change Israel’s deteriorating image around the world, which has been badly damaged after decades of occupation, apartheid and military attacks on a civilian population [5]. The strategy’s aim is to actively move the focus of the conversation around Israel from its military regime and its crimes, to its perceived cultural or high tech achievements, or- ironically- its respect for human rights. Most notably the exploitation of the achievements of the LGBTQ* community, which in reality are suffering frightening setbacks [6], especially when it comes to legislation, where Israel is in fact far behind most European states [7]. An exploitation which the Pop-Kultur festival duplicates by associating its LGBTQ*-friendly space with Israel’s embassy.

The Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli institutions [8] is a call initiated and conceptualised by Palestinian civil society (trade unions, women’s and youth associations, academic associations, human rights organisations, community centers, cultural associations, religious organizations, media groups, etc.) and has consensus across its separated sectors- in the West Bank, Gaza, within Israel itself, and Palestinian refugees all around the globe. It is those directly affected by Israeli policy who ask us, as people of conscious, to boycott Israel.

Many Jewish people of conscience from all around the world, and some of us within Israel, have taken up the call. Years of advocacy have proven to us, time and time again, that just as Israel is dependent on external funds and approval, so it is that external divestment and disapproval is the only way to move it to abide by international law and agreements.

It is for all this that we ask you to reconsider your participation in a festival that privileges its collaboration with the Israeli embassy over its own artistic program [9], partnering with a government that  applies policies of colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid against an indigenous population. Please don’t take part in this partnership and withdraw from the Pop-Kultur Berlin festival.  

We would be happy to answer any questions,

Sincerely,

BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within

[1] http://www.boycottisrael.info/

[2] https://bdsmovement.net/news/boycott-pop-kultur-berlin-festival-2019

[3] https://bdsmovement.net/news/%E2%80%9Cracism-and-racial-discrimination-a…

[4] https://pulsemedia.org/2010/08/23/we%E2%80%99ll-take-over-the-world-mini…

[5] https://electronicintifada.net/content/behind-brand-israel-israels-recen…

[6] https://972mag.com/homophobia-rears-its-ugly-head-in-pride-month-in-isra…

https://972mag.com/no-more-waiting-lgbtq-israelis-must-take-the-rights-t…

[7] https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-poll-israel-has-low-tolerance-gays-1.53…

[8] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

[9] https://www.facebook.com/823683424384531/posts/2370067223079469/

Original Statement

‘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. 

So long as Pop Kultur continues to have the Israeli embassy as a partner, all appearances at the festival will be exploited by the Israeli government as part of its efforts to whitewash its occupation and rebrand itself through culture.

We recognise that there is an urgent moral need to end the Israeli government’s decades-long oppression of millions of Palestinians, and that boycotts rooted in international law and universal principles of human rights are a legitimate, nonviolent, time-honoured tactic. 

We are dismayed that the festival director last year wrongly condemned BDS as “antisemitic” in defending their partnership with the Israeli embassy. Even Avi Primor, himself a former Israeli ambassador to Germany, agrees that “the leitmotiv of the BDS movement is justice for the Palestinians”. 

We agree with 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars who called on the German government not to endorse the recent anti-Palestinian Bundestag resolution that falsely equated the BDS movement for Palestinian rights with bigotry, adding that they “are shocked that demands for equality and compliance with international law are considered antisemitic”.

We also agree with Ishay Rosen Zvi, a Talmud professor at Tel Aviv University, who decried the attempts in Germany and elsewhere “to erase differences between criticism of Zionism, criticism of Israel, criticism of the policies of the government of Israel and antisemitism”.’

Signed,

Aviad Albert, musician

Dror Dayan, filmmaker and film scholar

Ohal Grietzer, musician

Avi Hershkovitz, film director

Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, performance artist

Jonathan Ofir, violinist and conductor

Michal Peleg, author 

Ben Ronen, visual artist

Michal Sapir, writer and musician

Yonatan Shapira, musician

Professor Eyal Sivan, filmmaker

Oriana Weich, artist

Karen Zack, photographer

Original Statement

Human Rights Violators should not be celebrated! Our Statement re: the Pop Culture Festival in Berlin

Solidarity with the Israeli regime rots the political and cultural atmosphere in Germany. Just recently the Open Source Festival, after having invited Talib Kweli, removed the singer from their schedule because he refused to distance himself from the BDS movement. The YAAM club in Berlin – inspired by the organizers in Düsseldorf – decided to put the same pressure on the US American rapper and activist by forcing him to censor his voice and criticism of the racist politics of Israel.

……………………..

The Pop Culture Festival in Berlin is celebrating its fifth year in August 2019 and is inviting everyone to join their so-called “artist dialogs“ and “international exchanges”. We see that the Israeli Embassy is yet again on their list of partners and sponsors.

Despite the many statements in past years from organizations such as PACBI (The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), the Jewish Antifa, BDS Berlin and our own voice, as well as 14 international artists from 6 different countries refusing to take part, the festival is maintaining its loyalty to the Israeli government, true to the motto “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil“.

It comes as no surprise that participants didn’t boycott so far this year. The organizers of the festival carried out careful research before selecting whom to invite. On their website one reads that they want to encourage diversity and dialog, but we see only dialog on consensual topics. Any reflection on the motives for boycotting human rights violations receives no attention or exposure at all. One is reminded only too well of Germany’s close alliance with the Apartheid regime in South Africa, until it collapsed. This embarrassing and shameful tradition should have no place in a democratic society, especially at a time when right-wing forces are gaining power.

We, the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace, are again calling on the organizers of the Pop Culture Festival to sever their partnership with the Israeli Embassy. Solidarity with the Israeli regime rots the political and cultural atmosphere in Germany. Just recently the Open Source Festival, after having invited the singer Talib Kweli to participate, removed him from their schedule because he refused to distance himself from the BDS movement. The YAAM club in Berlin – inspired by the organizers in Düsseldorf – decided to put the same pressure on the US American rapper and activist by forcing him to modify his position and censor his criticism of the racist politics of Israel.

Following the Bundestag resolution of May 17th 2019, Germany declared the BDS movement to be “antisemitic” and decided to fight its representatives, a move that further restricts the space of democratic free speech in Germany. On the other hand, the bloody occupation politics of Israel have no problem finding allies in Germany and a space to move and speak freely. Their representatives feel empowered to whitewash the crimes of Israel and polish its image. The recent partnership with the CSD (Christopher Street Day) in Berlin shows the human- and queer-friendly image Israel is trying to project by white- and pinkwashing its politics.

The Pop Culture Festival organizer, Katja Lucker, said in an interview that they can’t solve the so called “Arab-Israeli conflict”. Indeed, that was never the task of a cultural festival. But we must insist that by accepting funding from a far-right state, one contributes to its politics and allies oneself with it. One is supporting and helping a government that is violating international law and human rights, and is oppressing Palestinian culture on a daily basis, hiding behind an image of diversity. At the end of the day, one is rewarding human rights violations.

The solidarity of your invited artists with Palestine should have encouraged you to respond to the inevitable criticisms of the Israeli State, to reconsider your sponsors, and to reflect on why the partnership with a far-right state fosters neither art, nor open and constructive dialog. Instead you and the German media decided to criticize the artists’ boycotts, and then to ignore them.
We’d like to encourage the invited artists to reconsider their participation, and not to show their talent and art on a stage that is partnered with the Israeli government. Further we want to empower all readers to write to the organizers of the Pop Culture Festival and to remind them why we will not tolerate a partnership with the Israeli Apartheid state.

To reuse the powerful words of the singer Talib Kweli “Any antiracism which excludes Palestinians isn’t antiracism at all!”

All good things come in three’s. We are calling on the organizers of the festival, yet again, not only to speak about a discursive space, but also to create one. After 14 invited artists refused to participate in your festival, after numerous calls for boycott in the last year and failed panel discussions, in which BDS and Palestinians were talked about rather than with, we feel that the organizers have more than sufficient reason to sever their partnership with the Israeli Embassy.

Original Statement

It is with a heavy heart that we will be taking the stage at Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin tomorrow.

We only recently learned the scale of Pop-Kultur’s ongoing partnership with the Israeli government, which exploits the arts in order to cover up its racist, apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. Indeed, we were shocked to see the logo of the Israeli embassy prominently displayed on the Pop-Kultur website.

We join the calls from Palestinian, Israeli and international artists urging Pop-Kultur Festival to end all ties with the Israeli government until Palestinians can live without oppression or apartheid, in their own state.

Just as it would have been reprehensible for a self-defined progressive festival to partner with or accept any support from the apartheid regime in South Africa in the past, while locals call them not to, it is now wrong for Pop-Kultur to partner with the Israeli government until it fully complies with its obligations under international law and respects Palestinian national rights for an independent state, recognized by the UN.

As a band that takes calls from the oppressed local Palestinian, and even some Israeli community seriously, Repetitor commits to not playing future gigs in Israel or at events sponsored by its government. We don’t want to be used in a campaign of normalizing racial segregation and occupation of Palestinian territories.

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people like they stood and still stand with our own.

Repetitor

Original Statement