Event

At a protest Sunday at Brooklinen’s new Williamsburg, Brooklyn store, New York human rights advocates called for a boycott of the online sheet and linen retailer, over their Israeli production partners’ involvement in Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people. The protest came amidst international outrage over the Israeli military’s abuse with a bulldozer of the body of Palestinian in the impoverished Gaza Strip, an open-air prison with two million residents. 

Brooklinen has escaped scrutiny and parried questions about the specifics of its production of its sheets and linens in Israel. Brooklinen’s products are made by Israel’s Offis Textile, which also has murky ties with the Israeli company Ofertex. The two Israeli companies have been involved with illegal Israeli settlements and have exploited captive Palestinian workers. Their taxes fund Israel’s apartheid system. 

The Sunday protest kicked off when two participants entered the Brooklinen store and caught staff by surprise, saying they wanted to return their sheets because they were “stained with Israeli apartheid.” They then pulled out pillowcases which said “Brooklinen sews destruction in Palestine” and “Brooklinen in bed with Israeli apartheid.” 

Outside the store, the protesters then hung the pillowcases, Brooklinen’s dirty laundry, on a clothesline, and held signs, sang, chanted, and passed out flyers to passersby.

One musical protest highlight was a rendition of “Dirty deeds, done with sheets” to the tune of an AC/DC song, that included lyrics, “Shut down your store, just lock the door, or heed the boycott call.” (video) Protesters also sang “All we need is boycott, sweet boycott, there’ll be justice everywhere,” as part of a remixed version entitled “Apartheid in Your Sheets,” of the Martha and the Vandellas classic, “Dancing in the Street.” 

Allison Brown of Adalah-NY explained, “Brooklinen wants to sell a lifestyle of comfort, but it’s hiding some uncomfortable truths under its sheets. Palestinian civil society calls on people of conscience to boycott the products of Israeli companies that are complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Brooklinen must end all dealings with complicit Israeli companies.”  

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY, October 2, 2018 – Palestinian arts and solidarity organizations, along with US Jewish and Israeli groups, have joined theater artists in signing a letter calling on Toronto, New York and Pittsburgh arts organizations not to host Israel’s Gesher Theatre or partner with the Israeli government, citing their involvement in violations of Palestinian rights. Award-winning actors Kathleen Chalfant and Miriam Margolyes, and playwrights Caryl Churchill, Betty Shamieh, Naomi Wallace, and Anne Washburn are among the artists who signed the letter.

Gesher Theatre says their Canadian and US performances were “made possible with the generous support of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” At their opening Toronto performance Saturday night hosted by the Ontario Heritage Trust, supporters of Palestinian rights handed out flyers calling for a boycott of Gesher Theatre, and held aloft a large sign saying “Your Event is Sponsored by the Israeli government. Its Military Killed 150 Unarmed Palestinian Protesters in Gaza This Summer.” In a statement, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto said, "We protested Gesher Theatre’s opening night in Toronto to show the event for what it really is – an effort by the Israeli government to distract attention away from its violations of Palestinians' rights.”

Web Action

As part of the thoughtful, hopeful, and principled Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and out of respect for Palestinian self-determination, we affirm that "Brand Israel" is not welcome in New York and we commit to upholding the cultural boycott however we can. We will not participate in events sponsored by the Israeli government or complicit Israeli institutions in New York, Israel, or anywhere else. As a community of New York-based artists and cultural workers, we call on other artists and cultural workers to join this global movement until Israeli occupation, colonization, and apartheid have ended.

Video

Israel's war on free speech

Sarah Schulman, Susan Abulhawa, Aja Monet and Radhika Sainath at Verso Books in Brooklyn, September 18, 2017.

Writers Susan Abulhawa and Sarah Schulman, poet Aja Monet, and legal expert Radhika Sainath discuss the repression of Palestinian cultural production as well as the increasingly harsh attempts here in the United States to silence criticism of Israeli government policies.

Press Release

Ex-Leviev staffer testifies company bribed NYPD to quash protests at diamond store

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 21, 2017, New York, NY - On Saturday New York human rights advocates celebrated the closure of the showcase Madison Avenue diamond store of Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev by singing social justice-themed holiday carols for the eleventh consecutive year outside Leviev’s now former store. The closure of Leviev’s signature New York store followed 30 protests since its opening ten years ago, years of condemnations of Leviev’s businesses’ human right records, and a raft of conflicts and controversies involving the businesses in the Leviev Group of Companies.

Protesters outside the former Leviev store on Saturday sang Adalah-NY holiday boycott classics including We Wish Him a Loss of BusinessI Made a Little SettlementO Little Store on Madison, and Diamond Mines.