New York, NY - After receiving over 30,000 views in just two days, a video of New York human rights activists commemorating Palestinian Land Day by calling on Americans to boycott Israel was taken down on the evening of April 1st by YouTube. Today, Adalah-NY posted a silent version of the video on YouTube. In the video, originally posted on March 30, more than 30 dancers accompanied by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra surprised crowds at New York's bustling Grand Central Terminal with an unannounced song and dance.
The flash mob started with a handful of people and within a minute saw dozens more singing and dancing to a parody of the tune of "Don't Stop Believin’" by Journey. "Don't stop boycottin'," they sang, "Think when you're shopping." They called out companies benefiting from Israeli occupation, and celebrated Roger Waters, Gil Scott Heron, and Elvis Costello, who are among the many artists to have heeded the Palestinian civil society call to boycott Israel until it complies with international law.
How Now BDS? Media, Politics and Queer Activism A conversation with John Greyson and Judith Butler Moderated by Jasbir Puar
Friday, March 11, 6 to 8pm Judson Memorial Church, Basement Gym - 243 Thompson St., just off Washington Square Park
John Greyson and Judith Butler will consider new forms of activism in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, focusing on both the cultural and academic boycott and the importance of queer BDS activism in Palestine and elsewhere. They will discuss not only the reasons for supporting BDS, but the new forms of anti-Occupation activism in the media, popular culture, the academy, and other domains of public life. "How Now BDS" will center on how BDS is done now, and what must still be done.
American folk music legend Pete Seeger has apparently joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), the American musician expressed regret for his previous support of an event sponsored by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and threw his support for the BDS movement at a meeting in New York last month.
Update 3/9/2011: Adalah-NY takes factual accuracy extremely seriously. Following the meeting that representatives of Adalah-NY and ICAHD had with Mr. Seeger, all parties reviewed and agreed to the Adalah-NY/ICAHD February 28th press release and the quotes in it before it was issued.
After our February 28th press release, other callers published statements from Mr. Seeger that could be interpreted as somewhat different from those in our press release, quoting him as saying that his “opinions waver” with new information. We do not consider this to be a retraction of his stated support for BDS. We are happy that increasing numbers of performing artists are studying the colonial situation in Palestine and supporting the Palestinian call to pressure Israel through boycott. We applaud Pete Seeger for his active concern with this issue and are certain his statements will encourage other artists to participate as well.
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February 28, 2011- Folk music legend Pete Seeger has come out in support of the growing Palestinian movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as a program for justice for Palestinians and a route to peace in the Middle East.
Seeger, 92, participated in last November’s online virtual rally “With Earth and Each Other,” sponsored by the Arava Institute, an Israeli environmental organization, and by the Friends of the Arava Institute. The Arava Institute counts among its close partners and major funders the Jewish National Fund, responsible since 1901 for securing land in Palestine for the use of Jews only while dispossessing Palestinians. Although groups in the worldwide BDS movement had requested he quit the event, Seeger felt that he could make a strong statement for peace and justice during the event.
The 2011 American tour by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, a seven-city, eight-concert trek that reached Carnegie Hall, was meant to be a festive occasion. Unquestionably Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic make up a significant and valuable artistic alliance. Still, not everyone was of a mind to celebrate. Opponents of the Israeli government’s policies and actions toward the Palestinians have deemed the orchestra, in its role as one of Israel’s most visible and successful cultural exports, complicit, however quietly.
February 22, 2011 – Seventy New Yorkers protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) performance at Carnegie Hall Tuesday evening, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest last Sunday evening in West Palm Beach, an upcoming Wednesday protest in Newark, and further protests in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as reported by the Israeli news website YNet.
Noelle Ghoussaini from Adalah-NY explained, “Tonight we sent a clear message to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israeli government’s “Brand Israel” campaign that their music cannot drown out Palestinians’ calls for justice.” The US protests respond to the call from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to boycott cultural institutions like the IPO that work to normalize Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and whitewash the oppression of Palestinians in Israel, the occupied territories, and in exile.
