Dear Justin Bieber,
We are BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (BfW); A group of Israeli citizens that support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, untill it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. We come to you today with a very serious appeal, which will effect millions of lives, Palestinian, Israeli, Muslim, Christian and Jewish.
February 22, 2011
Dear Buzzcocks,
Dear Mr Carreras,
We were saddened to hear that you will be giving a concert in Israel in March.
You may not be aware of the serious violations of International Law and Human Rights that have been carried out against the Palestinian population by Israel over the last 60-odd years. One of the most recent violations was the brutal attack made on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009, during which Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity as detailed in the report that the South African judge Richard Goldstone drew up for the United Nations in 2009.
Dear Bryan Ferry,
We are an Israeli group called BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within. Undoubtedly, our name discloses the intent of this letter: We hereby invite you to join the growing international movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel - a movement that has undertaken to respond to the Palestinian call to apply these nonviolent measures against Israel, until the following is accomplished:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
February 3, 2011
Dear Gilberto Gil,
We are members of a group of over 200 Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian-led cultural boycott of Israel. As an artist who was himself imprisoned and exiled by a military regime in your country, we heard with dismay about your scheduled April 14 concert in Tel-Aviv. The Palestinian Call [1] for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) was issued in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in order to counter racism and such oppressive mechanisms as mass unlawful expulsion and imprisonment. We are aware that you visited Israel in the past. It is not much due to the act itself but due to its current context that we urge you now to heed the Palestinian Call and cancel your scheduled performance in Israel. By doing so you will stand by a globally growing, human rights-based and non-violent civil society Palestinian initiative.
February 12, 2011
Dear participants of the Red Sea Chamber Music Festival,
We, Israeli citizens and residents, Jews and Palestinians, are writing to you today to ask that you withdraw your participation from the 6th International Red Sea Chamber Music Festival.
We are a group of Israeli citizens who are deeply concerned about our government's policies of apartheid and occupation, and the European Union's complicity in these policies. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Poland for assuming the EU Presidency in July 2011. It has been brought to our attention that the first joint Polish-Israeli cabinet session is due in Jerusalem on the 24th of February.
As Israeli citizens who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions call on Israel, we believe that if Ian McEwan accepts the Jerusalem prize next month in Jerusalem (Letters, 26 January), it will make him a collaborator with Israel's worst human rights offenders and its "business as usual" policy. The Jerusalem prize is awarded by the Israeli establishment, which is keen on branding Israel in general, and Jerusalem in particular, as beacons of enlightenment and democracy. In reality, Ian McEwan will be playing into the hands of and shaking hands with cynical politicians who are trying to whitewash their systematic human rights violations. Specifically, he will be legitimising the actions of Jerusalem's racist mayor, Nir Barkat, who pursues and defends the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, in order for them to be occupied by Jewish settlers. If McEwan "opposes illegal Israeli settlements", how can he accept the accolades of the people who are responsible for that abomination?
“In the eyes of the world, the question is what can be done when the relevant institutions do not succeed in enforcing international law?”
January 25, 2011
Dear British Writers in Support of Palestine (BWISP)
We are members of BOYCOTT!2 - a group of Jews and Palestinians, citizens and residents of Israel, who are struggling to end the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinians. We are writing to reassure you that here, in Israel, your attempts to bring about a change in the Middle East will not fall on deaf ears. There is increasing evidence showing that the boycott movement, inspired by the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel3 may eventually affect Israel’s policies. Indeed the loss of Israel’s legitimacy, caused by the state’s war crimes and violation of international law, is affecting the Israeli public, its opinion shapers, as well as policy makers.
