The open letter to them that was signed by artists from Sonic Youth, TV on the Radio, and a bunch of other artists and activists says it better than I could,
We understand you’ve been approached already by Palestinian campaigners. They’ve asked you to respect their call for a cultural boycott of Israel, and you’ve turned them down. Since Radiohead campaigns for freedom for the Tibetans, we’re wondering why you’d turn down a request to stand up for another people under foreign occupation. And since Radiohead fronted a gig for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we’re wondering why you’d ignore a call to stand against the denial of those rights when it comes to the Palestinians. **
Radiohead once issued a statement saying: ‘Without the work of organisations like Amnesty International, the Universal Declaration would be mere rhetoric’. You’ve clearly read Amnesty’s reports, so you’ll know that Israel denies freedom to the Palestinians under occupation, who can’t live where they want, can’t travel as they please, who get detained (and often tortured) without charge or trial, and can’t even use Facebook without surveillance, censorship and arrest.
In asking you not to perform in Israel, Palestinians have appealed to you to take one small step to help pressure Israel to end its violation of basic rights and international law. Surely if making a stand against the politics of division, of discrimination and of hate means anything at all, it means standing against it everywhere – and that has to include what happens to Palestinians every day.
Otherwise the rest is, to use your words, ‘mere rhetoric’.
You may think that sharing the bill with Israeli musicians Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis, who play Jewish-Arabic music, will make everything OK. It won’t, any more than ‘mixed’ performances in South Africa brought closer the end of the apartheid regime. Please do what artists did in South Africa’s era of oppression: stay away, until apartheid is over.
Why should fans be punished for a gov that doesnt listen?
Their government is, to a large extent, listening. A lot of the nonsense we’ve seen this last year was Netanyahu trying to cling to power, but most of it is Israeli popular will. They want the genocide; some of them just don’t want to sacrifice the hostages to make it happen.
When asked to assess their country’s military response against Hamas in Gaza, about four-in-ten Israelis say it has been about right. Another 34% say it has not gone far enough, while 19% say it has gone too far.
Israeli Arabs are much more critical of the military response, with 74% saying it has gone too far. Only 4% of Israeli Jews agree.
As of mid sept, polls show 41% of them do. Not a majority but far too much when it’s genocide and ethnic cleansing we are talking about.
If 2/5ths of your population want to keep indiscriminately killing innocent men, women and children, it’s up to the other 3/5ths to tell them to sit down and teach them why they suck. It’s not up to the rest of the world to go “we’ll it’s not a majority, I guess as long as only 40% of them are drooling at the thought of dead children, a boycott would be unfair.”
According to a random poll I just looked up, 29% of Americans “somewhat care” if their politicians support genocide. Maybe we should pressure them to care more and join the 19% that care a lot.
Boycott America until people take it seriously and stop funding them.
I’m (truly) not sure if this reasoning applies to the people of Israel at large. To be fair, the same can increasingly be said of Americans who continue to support Republicans as they go mask off.
I’ve thought about if bands started to boycott red states. I live in a red state, and any band that might boycott would also have more liberal fans. So they would really be hurting those that already agree with them.
But also, fuck our government and the 2/3 of people that agree with those crazy fucks.
That doesnt matter if they intend to play for their fans and not for their gov. Why should fans be punished for a gov that doesnt listen?
The open letter to them that was signed by artists from Sonic Youth, TV on the Radio, and a bunch of other artists and activists says it better than I could,
Their government is, to a large extent, listening. A lot of the nonsense we’ve seen this last year was Netanyahu trying to cling to power, but most of it is Israeli popular will. They want the genocide; some of them just don’t want to sacrifice the hostages to make it happen.
How do you know? Do you have any data that shows that the majority want the violence?
There.
Relevant:
It’s no secret, really.
As of mid sept, polls show 41% of them do. Not a majority but far too much when it’s genocide and ethnic cleansing we are talking about.
If 2/5ths of your population want to keep indiscriminately killing innocent men, women and children, it’s up to the other 3/5ths to tell them to sit down and teach them why they suck. It’s not up to the rest of the world to go “we’ll it’s not a majority, I guess as long as only 40% of them are drooling at the thought of dead children, a boycott would be unfair.”
According to a random poll I just looked up, 29% of Americans “somewhat care” if their politicians support genocide. Maybe we should pressure them to care more and join the 19% that care a lot.
Boycott America until people take it seriously and stop funding them.
Yes
I’m (truly) not sure if this reasoning applies to the people of Israel at large. To be fair, the same can increasingly be said of Americans who continue to support Republicans as they go mask off.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/05/30/israeli-views-of-the-israel-hamas-war/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-netanyahu-likud-israel-election-poll
https://en.idi.org.il/articles/56081
I’ve thought about if bands started to boycott red states. I live in a red state, and any band that might boycott would also have more liberal fans. So they would really be hurting those that already agree with them.
But also, fuck our government and the 2/3 of people that agree with those crazy fucks.