[van-announce] Sun. Oct. 2, Vancouver: Quartet Fiddles While Palestine Burns: Protest the Jerusalem String Quartet!

[Charlotte Kates]

*QUARTET FIDDLES WHILE PALESTINE BURNS....PROTEST THE JERUSALEM STRING
QUARTET<http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/2011/oct-2-protest-the-jerusalem-string-quartet/>
*

*Sunday, Oct. 2*
*2:30 PM*
*Chan Centre for the Performing Arts @ UBC*
*6265 Crescent Rd - Vancouver*

**Join the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign - Vancouver for a protest of
the Jerusalem String Quartet performance at the Chan Centre on October 2.

Arts and culture have become an important weapon in the Israeli government's
public relations campaign, and in 2006, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs launched an initiative called "Brand Israel," to salvage Israel's
deteriorating image abroad. Arye Mekel of Israel's Foreign Ministry has
stated that, "We will send well-known novelists and writers overseas,
theater companies, exhibits... This way you show Israel's prettier face, so
we are not thought of purely in the context of war."

The Jerusalem Music Centre, the home base for the Jerusalem String Quartet,
is prominently featured on the Foreign Ministry website, revealing how it is
among the Israeli cultural institutions that are all part of the ongoing
effort to "re-brand" Israel's image in the West. Thus, Israel is portrayed
as an enlightened center of arts and technology, thereby concealing the ugly
facts about its occupation, racial discrimination and grave violations of
international law and fundamental Palestinian rights.

Although the Centre claims to be independent, it cooperates readily with
practically all leading organisations of music and music education in Israel
and is funded by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, a funder of the
racist Jewish National Fund (responsible for "Canada Park" on stolen
Palestinian land, instrumental in the Nakba and an active participant in the
ongoing displacement of millions of Palestinians). The Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs has stated in an article that the Jerusalem Quartet receives
professional patronage from the Unit for Young Musicians at the Music Centre
and the Israeli ambassador to the UK said in 2008 when protesters disrupted
the Quartet's performance at the Edinburgh Festival  that “we must not give
in to attempts to sabotage the marketing of Israeli art and culture...”

Since the quartet has made no attempt to dissociate itself from Israel’s
apartheid policies, we can only assume that it is happy to play under the
patronage of the State of Israel and/or its institutions while the charges
of war crimes against Israel hang thick in the air worldwide.

This call is made within the framework of the Palestinian civil society call
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and the call for the boycott of
all Israeli academic and cultural institutions issued by the Palestinian
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), and in
accordance with the guidelines for the cultural boycott of Israel, which an
overwhelming majority of Palestinian cultural and artistic institutions have
endorsed.

Join us to protest the music of apartheid on Sunday, Oct. 2!

Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
boycottapartheid at gmail.com
http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/




-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com