Palestinians call on all international music industry professionals to boycott the Israel Music Showcase Festival. bdsmovement.net/news/israel-mu…
Israel Music Showcase Festival is an attempt by Israel’s apartheid regime to whitewash its colonial oppression against Palestinians and should be avoided by all progressives.
Its main sponsor is the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is directly involved in war crimes.
In May 2021 alone, Israeli occupation forces killed at least 240 Palestinians, including 66 children, in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the majority are refugees from previous rounds of Israeli violence and ethnic cleansing.
Israel's brutal May 2021 massacre led more than 1500 musicians, among other artists, to endorse our peaceful calls for boycotting Israel’s complicit cultural sector. #MusiciansForPalestinemusiciansforpalestine.com
The Israeli foreign ministry openly confesses to artwashing Israel's crimes. A former deputy director general, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, admitted: “We are seeing culture as a hasbara [propaganda] tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between hasbara and culture”.
Another Israeli foreign ministry official stated: “We will send well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, exhibits. This way, you show Israel’s prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war”.
Key Israel Music Showcase Festival partners include the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sports, which has long pushed to make all cultural funding conditional on ‘loyalty’ to the Israeli regime’s particular brand of far-right Zionism.
The Israeli culture ministry regards culture as crucial in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid regime, and has threatened to freeze funds for arts organisations criticising Israeli policies.
Another Israel Music Showcase Festival partner is the Jerusalem municipality, complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians from the occupied city, which Israel calls “Judaization”.
The main venue, Yellow Submarine, is sponsored by the Jerusalem Foundation, which has partnered with the fanatic, illegal settler group Elad to appropriate or erase Palestinian cultural heritage in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the so-called ‘City of David’.
The Israel Music Showcase Festival is proud of its collaboration with Israel’s apartheid regime. Unlike a similar event, Tune In Tel Aviv, it does not even pretend to be ‘independent’. bdsmovement.net/news/boycott-t…
Joining the growing international consensus that Israel is an apartheid regime and should not be subject to business-as-usual, Amnesty International has called on international enterprises to ...
... “ensure that your own activities in Israel and the OPT are not contributing to or benefiting from the system of apartheid” and “cease relevant activities if it cannot be prevented”. amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Israel’s leading human rights organisation, too, has designated Israel as an apartheid state. btselem.org/publications/f…
We doubt that most participants in the apartheid Israel Music Showcase Festival would have attended an event in South Africa sponsored by the apartheid regime there. Apartheid Israel should be no exception.
If you cannot contribute to our peaceful struggle for freedom, justice and equality, at least do no harm. bdsmovement.net/news/israel-mu…
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.@Disney's Snow White features Gal Gadot as the evil queen.
Gadot has consistently acted as a cultural ambassador for Israel, even hosting screenings of an Israeli military propaganda film that seeks to justify its live-streamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
By choosing to directly represent genocidal Israel, Gal Gadot’s films are boycottable. BDS targets institutions, not individuals. Where individuals represent Israel, their activities are subject to the institutional criteria of the BDS movement.
We deeply appreciate that lead actor Rachel Zegler has publicly expressed support for Palestinian liberation, but that is not sufficient to undo the harm done by the inclusion of Israel's cultural ambassador, Gadot, in the film.
Academy members are among more than 100 film workers calling on the Oscars to drop Gal Gadot from the ceremony. forms.gle/E7QUdghy45xJbD…
In an open letter, prominent figures including Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair and Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir say that "the Academy must take a firm stance against complicity in oppression."
"Gadot has openly and repeatedly expressed her support for Israel's military actions against Palestinians," which is "especially troubling in light of the International Court of Justice’s determination that there is a plausible case for genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza.
You might want to check with PUMA, adidas, and Erreà before going ahead with the Israel Football Association sponsorship.
Sincerely,
BDS
ps: #BoycottReebok
@Reebok PUMA, following a 5-year global boycott campaign, leaked news in December 2023 that it would not renew its contract with the IFA in a clear response to the boycott and to distance its brand from Israel's #GazaGenocide and underlying apartheid regime.
@Reebok adidas, did not renew its contract with the IFA in 2018, following a global campaign led by Palestinian sports teams and the delivery of 16,000 signatures to its headquarters.
The Berlin International Film Festival remains deeply complicit in the German government’s partnership in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Under massive pressure from filmmakers, organisers, and audiences, Berlinale just published long statements trying to do damage control – but failed to meet our campaign’s demands.
Meanwhile, filmmakers continue to withdraw from the festival and alternative, genocide-free festivals are popping up all over the city, showing the depth of support for boycotting Berlinale.
Palestinians call to boycott @CaptainAmerica: Brave New World, @Disney's Snow White movie, @DisneyPlus subscriptions, and @Marvel merchandise!
Captain America: Brave New World, released this week, is reviving the anti-Palestinian racist character of Sabra AKA Ruth Bat-Seraph, who since appearing in Marvel comics in the 1980s has represented the Israeli government and occupation forces.
As Palestinian film & arts orgs said: "by reviving this racist character in any form, Marvel is promoting Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinians." Marvel & Disney are complicit in "Israeli propaganda & the glorification of settler-colonial violence against Indigenous people."
Palestinians call for the boycott of #Berlinale 2025
The Berlin International Film Festival is complicit in the German government’s partnership in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and fails to protect filmmakers standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
PACBI calls for the boycott of Berlinale 2025 due to its complicity in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
PACBI is a founding member of the BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement.
Echoing the call and demands of international film workers & Berlin-based activists, PACBI urges all participants, including filmmakers, jury members, industry members & all others to withdraw from Berlinale to avoid artwashing the German state’s partnership in Israel’s genocide.