Open Letter to Paul McCartney: Do Not Perform in Israel

The No Time To Celebrate Campaign has joined the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and other allies in issuing an open letter to Paul McCartney asking that he cancel a scheduled concert in Israel in late September.  More information is available from PACBI and the BIG Campaign (Boycott Israeli Goods) in the UK.

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Sir Paul McCartney,

We write to you with sadness and urgency as we hear that you are preparing to perform in Israel at the end of this month, and we ask that you cancel this performance. As Jewish North Americans, we are outraged at the policies the state of Israel has implemented in our names and with our government’s financial support for more than sixty years. Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem live under occupation and siege; Palestinian citizens of Israel have fewer rights than Jewish citizens of Israel; and Palestinian refugees, who make up two thirds of the Palestinian population, have been denied their internationally recognized right to return to their lands and their homes since 1948.

At the same time, we write to you with hope that you will heed the unified Palestinian civil society call for boycott against Israel until it complies with international law.  Boycott is a nonviolent tool that has been used by ordinary people countless times to hold countries responsible for atrocities when our governments fail to do so.  In South Africa, the boycott movement helped bring about an end to the apartheid system.  The boycott is both collective and individual.  In this case, we call on you as an individual to take a stand against Israeli apartheid and cancel your performance.

Whether you perform or not, you are making a statement.  If you perform this month, at a time when Israel is celebrating sixty years of existence, you indicate that you support the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (now millions) and the ongoing policies of ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population from their land.  If you cancel your performance, you indicate that you will not, in the name of profit, turn a blind eye to both the suffering and the call to action of millions of Palestinian people.

With stature comes responsibility, and we hope you do not take yours lightly.

Sincerely,

The No Time To Celebrate Campaign
a campaign organized and implemented by thousands of Jewish people in the US and Canada this past spring to protest Israeli Independence Day activities and to commemorate the Nakba (1948 displacement of Palestinian people)

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NYC: ‘SCHLOCKETTES’ DENOUNCE ZIONISM AT RADIO CITY

May 8, 2008

JEWISH ‘SCHLOCKETTES’ DENOUNCE ZIONISM WITH SONG AND DANCE AT RADIO CITY SALUTE TO ISRAEL

Photos by Bran Ali Fenner

A small group of anti-Zionist Jews calling themselves “Schlockettes” and their giant Handala puppet provoked stares, anger and intense conversations at Israel’s 60^th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall last night with a high-kicking musical protest. The group of fifteen sang, danced and performed a cheerleading routine in front and at times in the midst of crowds of attendees waiting in line to enter the event while across the street a separate Palestinian solidarity rally was held. The event was the beginning of two weeks of events through out New York City that Jewish activists have pledged to disrupt under the banner of “It’s No Time To Celebrate.”

“People forget that there was no consensus among Jews that ethno-nationalism would save them in 1897, there was no consensus in 1948, and there sure as hell isn’t a consensus now,” said Louisa Solomon, one of the organizers.

“A shonda! A shame! No occupation in our name!” shouted the activists, dressed in matching black, as they led a banner reading “Jews Honor Palestinian Resistance” and an 8-foot tall puppet of Handala through sometimes hostile crowds. Handala is a cartoon character representing Palestinian refugee children created by cartoonist Najy al-Ali, and shonda is Yiddish for shame.

The New York protests mirror other events taking place across the nation. Hundreds of Jews and allies have signed an on-line pledge called “No Time To Celebrate” calling for peaceful demonstrations and alternative events demonstrating opposition to Zionism and solidarity with Palestinian communities.

“Sixty years ago, Zionist militias destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000 Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state in a land where the majority was not Jewish,” reads the on-line pledge, which has over 500 signatures. “This does not deserve to be celebrated.”

Or as the New York activists cheered as part of a choreographed dance routine:

“We’re gonna shake off, shake off this racist occupation!
All people deserve self-determination”

Letter Published in Guardian (UK): “We’re not celebrating Israel’s anniversary”

“We’re not celebrating Israel’s anniversary”

Published April 30, 2008 in the UK Guardian
View full letter and list of signatories at the Guardian online

In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler’s genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians.

In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa’s market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.