[stirling-palestinedirectaction] Fw: [SPSCcommittee2012] Fwd: [BDS-Europe] Turin artists call for Batsheva boycott

[andystuart at talktalk.net]

Hi All
Some info on the Italian response to Batsheva. It also contains a compliment to Scotland's response to the Israeli dance compamy.
All the Best.
Andy



--- Original Message ----- 
From: Mick Napier 
To: SPSCcommittee2012 at yahoogroups.co.uk 
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2012 10:27 PM
Subject: [SPSCcommittee2012] Fwd: [BDS-Europe] Turin artists call for Batsheva boycott


  

Hard work is recognised in Rome...

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:


  From: "Stephanie Westbrook" <steph at webfabbrica.com>
  Date: 23 November 2012 15:19:25 GMT-02:00
  To: "Mick Napier" <chair at scottishpsc.org.uk>
  Subject: Re: [BDS-Europe] Turin artists call for Batsheva boycott


  Hi Mick, apologies for the delay. Thanks for publishing this. We weren't terribly well 
  coordinated on this in Italy. Most of what happened in Turin I learned via google alert on 
  Batsheva. I think people get wrapped up in what they are doing and either don't have or take 
  the time to coordinate/communicate. Still don't know who was behind the fabulous artists' 
  letter! But we will improve with time. In one of our long drawn out meetings a young Italian 
  woman passed me a note reading "I'm moving to Scotland" :)

  Happy to hear you are taking this experience to WSF. 

  In solidarity, 

  Stephanie


  From:    "Mick Napier" <chair at scottishpsc.org.uk>
  To:    "'Stephanie Westbrook'" <steph at webfabbrica.com>
  Subject:    RE: [BDS-Europe] Turin artists call for Batsheva boycott
  Date sent:    Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:56:55 -0000


     Hi, Stephanie
     Letter uploaded to www.no2brandisrael.org
     We'll upload your final report as soon as it's ready.
     We're preparing for the World Social Forum - Free Palestine now and will feed in the 
     experiences of the Batsheva protests.
     In solidarity
     MIck
     From: bds-europe-bounces+chair=scottishpsc.org.uk at lists.bdsmovement.net 
     [mailto:bds-europe-bounces+chair=scottishpsc.org.uk at lists.bdsmovement.net] On Behalf 
     Of Stephanie Westbrook
     Sent: 13 November 2012 11:45
     To: bDS-Europe at lists.bdsmovement.net
     Subject: [BDS-Europe] Turin artists call for Batsheva boycott
     Translation of letter sent by artists in Turin to the director of TorinoDanza, festival hosting 
     Batsheva. Protests continue tonight. Initial report from last night: Samba Band joined in and 
     was loud enough to be heard inside, at least eight ticket holders decided not to attend 
     performance.
     http://bdsitalia.org/index.php/english-menu/535-artists-batsheva
     Turin artists write to Director of TorinoDanza: Withdraw invitation to Batsheva Dance 
     Company
     An open letter by Turin artists to Gigi Cristoforetti, Director of TorinoDanza
     Dear Gigi Cristoforetti,
     We realize this is a sensitive subject, but please do not become an accomplice to a 
     rebranding operation, specifically commissioned and financed by the Israeli government, 
     aimed at hiding the crimes the State continues to perpetrate against the legitimate rights of 
     the Palestinian people behind a reassuring image. We write asking you to revoke the 
     decision to host the Batsheva Dance Company in Moncalieri (Turin) for the following reasons.
     Many colleagues, artists and intellectuals, openly opposed to Israeli policies, even willing to 
     discuss the boycott of Israeli products, reject the idea of academic and cultural boycotts of 
     Israel.
     There are two reasons for this. The first is that a cultural boycott is basically considered a 
     form of censorship, and art is censored only in totalitarian systems where they fear the 
     message of freedom. The second is that art spans boundaries of nations and conflicts and 
     with its universal ideals reconciles men, feeds mutual understanding and builds bridges 
     between cultures.
     In the abstract, these colleagues are right. In practical terms, however, they fail to take into 
     account a central characteristic of the age in which they live: the key role of communication 
     and the utilitarian relationship between culture and spectacle on the one hand and politics on 
     the other, between art and power.
     In the age of the Internet, the global village and virtual reality, a cultural event, just as a 
     sporting event, is of utmost importance in promoting the international appeal of a country, in 
     order to intercept financial flows and at the same time promote its public image. It could not 
     be otherwise, and certainly not for those who truly want to understand the reasoning behind 
     the BDS movement's extension of the boycott to artistic and cultural realms.
     Several centuries have passed since Machiavelli suggested that those in power carefully 
     manage their public image.
     Companies that invest in art do so with the legitimate aim of associating their brand to the 
     work being financed, for reasons of prestige and image (ultimately to increase sales). States 
     behave no differently.
     Israel knows well it must invest a great deal in order to present itself in way that casts a 
     shadow over the reality of a country that has illegally occupied the West Bank for over forty 
     years, holds the Gaza Strip under an enduring military blockade, launched bloodbaths in 
     Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009, with thousands of civilians killed, practices a system of 
     apartheid within its borders, denies Palestinians every last square meter of land, forcing them 
     to leave, ignores UN resolutions and violates international law.
     The attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, with the associated death and destruction, defined as 
     disproportionate even by some European politicians close to Israel, reminded world public 
     opinion, distracted by many wars and the economic crisis, that there continues to exist in the 
     Middle East a reality unacceptable to the ideals of justice and freedom that inspire the 
     democratic world.
     In order to counter growing unpopularity following the two massacres of 2006 and 2009, the 
     Israeli government launched an across the board public relations campaign called 
     "Unexpected Israel", which is also articulated in a specific cultural and artistic image 
     campaign called "Brand Israel."
     This campaign, financed with public funds, has mobilized available national artistic energies, 
     writers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, etc., in order to convey a positive image of the 
     country to the world. Israeli artists who accept ministry funding are required to sign a contract 
     that commits them to support the government campaign.
     These are artists that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs refers to as "the best 
     ambassadors of Israel in the world." The work of diplomacy consists of looking after the 
     interests of the nation throughout the world and convincing other countries to accept the 
     policies that the government in power considers effective in achieving an end. For example, 
     diplomacy can be mobilized to convince western countries about the need for Apartheid, for 
     reasons of national security.
     As you can see, in the specific situation it is not the content, the message of the artistic work, 
     which might also be of high value and that we respect, that decides its political significance, 
     but the context in which it operates. At the very least, the latter augments the effectiveness of 
     the artistic message considered, so to speak, in vitro.
     The target of the boycott, therefore, is not the art, much less our Israeli colleagues, but the 
     political significance it takes on in the context at that particular moment.
     Finally, a few words about one of the most common objections to academic and cultural 
     boycotts, also made by Umberto Eco, which is an objection of apparent common sense. Why 
     boycott Israel alone, one wonders. What about China in reference to Tibet? And Russia in 
     reference to Chechnya? And so on. We should boycott them too, as well as half the world, 
     though doing so would ultimately build walls between cultures, making dialogue more difficult.
     Better not to do anything, with the exception, of course, of the embargo on Saddam's Iraq 
     following Desert Storm, pity the hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, and the 
     sanctions against Milosevic's Serbia and Ahmadinejad's Iran.
     Yet there is a radical difference between Israel and China, for example, so evident that it's 
     surprising it isn't immediately grasped by an intellectual such as Eco.
     China is not a democratic country. We can consider it "normal" that a totalitarian country 
     does not respect the values of freedom and self-determination of peoples. The anomaly lies 
     in the fact that Israel is instead a country that refers to itself as democratic, and as such 
     wants to be and is accepted by the free world, to which it belongs for all intents and 
     purposes.
     We will not make war on China, it is hoped, in order to guarantee the Tibetan people's right to 
     self-determination (who are not subjected to an Apartheid regime as are Palestinian citizens 
     of Israel), but we can and must apply all necessary pressure, using strictly non-violent 
     methods, to demand that a democratic country (or one that wants to be) respect and apply 
     the principles by which it claims to be inspired, starting with the abolition of apartheid, under 
     penalty of virtual expulsion from the free world and suspension of trade and military 
     agreements in force.
     South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who along with Nelson Mandela was one of the 
     architects of post-Apartheid South Africa, addressing those who declared themselves neutral 
     with respect to the conflict that pitted the white minority against the black majority in that 
     country, said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the 
     oppressor."
     With this open letter, we call on you not to be neutral, and instead publicly assume your own 
     political and intellectual responsibilities.
     Anthony Salerno (musician)
     Lucia Citterio (dancer)
     Marco Gobetti (actor, director)
     Emanuele Cisi (musician)
     Enzo Zirilli (musician)
     Maurizio Redegoso Kharitian (musician)
     Francesco Varano (actor, director)
     Aldo Mella (musician)
     Riccardo Ruggeri (musician)
     Manuela Celestino (actress)
     Claudio Lodati (musician)
     Gemma Nocera (teacher, writer)
     David Liberti (musician)

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