Primavera Sound: “Sounds from Israel” are sounds from apartheid

Translations: Castellano, Català

Primavera Sound’s collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in Spain makes the Festival an accomplice of policies against International Law and Human Rights which the Zionist state has carried out in Palestine since 1948.

 

The festival of independent music, Primavera Sound, which will take place in Barcelona 28 – 31 May [1], includes among its line-up three Israeli bands: Vaadat Charigim [2], The Secret Sea [3] and Lola Marsh [4], all playing in the section “Sounds from Israel”[5]. These bands are scheduled to play on 29 May at PrimaveraPro, which the Festival defines as a “meeting aimed at professionals in the music industry that takes place in parallel to Primavera Sound”.[6]

These three bands receive institutional support from the Israeli Embassy in Spain, as clearly stated on the PrimaveraPro website [5]: “The Israeli Embassy in Spain’s Department of Culture aims to back companies, artists and organisations that promote Israeli culture and science outside its frontiers. Its objective is to promote the latest innovations in the fields of culture and science in which Israel, in its short history as a nation, is internationally recognised. On this occasion it is backing the best of the music scene in Israel by promoting a small selection of bands that were chosen from 190 candidates“.

On 6 July 2004 the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), composed by tens of Palestinian civil society organisations, called on the international community to boycott all Israeli cultural and academic institutions [7] as a non-violent contribution to the struggle against the occupation, colonisation and apartheid policies Israel has carried out in Palestine since 1948.

A year later, on 9 July 2005, more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations called for a campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel [8] until it 1/ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantles the Wall; 2/recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3/respects, protects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

The PACBI guidelines state that cultural boycott is applicable when “a cultural event is partially or fully sponsored or funded by an official Israeli body or a complicit institution” [9]. The three Israeli bands performing at Primavera Sound is a clear violation of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott, because of the institutional support they have received from the Israeli Embassy in Spain. Israel invests heavily in order to promote its culture, desperately trying to whitewash its image before an international community which is increasingly tired of its systematic illegal policies.

Primavera Sound’s collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in Spain makes the Festival an accomplice of policies against International Law and Human Rights which the Zionist state has carried out in Palestine since 1948.

We demand that the festival organisers: i) cancel the scheduled Israeli band performances and the section “Sounds from Israel”; ii) break off all relations with the Israeli Embassy in Spain and with any other Israeli institutions.

If the Festival declines to respond to our demands, we call on those who are planning to go to this Festival to boycott the concerts of these three Israeli bands.

Inspired by the magnificent example of the cultural boycott against the South-African apartheid regime [10], the cultural boycott against Israel is gaining strength day by day and is supported by many international artists and well-known people in the cultural sector: Cassandra Wilson, Bono, Natacha Atlas, Jean-Luc Godard, Cat Power, Jello Biafra, Lenny Kravitz, Lhasa, Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana, Annie Lennox, Devendra Banhart, Vanessa Paradis, Gil Scott-Heron, The Pixies, Massive Attack, among others.

In Spain, many artists and intellectuals back the cultural boycott against Israel: Obrint Pas, Maruja Torres, Juan Diego Botto, Amparo Sánchez (Amparanoia), Pilar Bardem, Cesk Freixas, Los Chicos del Maíz, Leo Bassi, Pau Alabajos, Willy Toledo, and many others. The “Guide for the cultural boycott against Israeli apartheid”, published in 2013 by Red Solidaria Contra la Ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP) [11], has a lot more background information (in Spanish) on the cultural boycott and how to get involved in the BDS campaign.

Primavera Sound: “Sounds from Israel” are sounds from apartheid. Stop the complicity! Cultural boycott against Israel!


Signatures:

BDS Catalunya
Red Solidaria contra la Ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP)
Complicitats que maten
Plataforma Aturem la Guerra

Revolta Global-Esquerra Anticapitalista
Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya (IAC)
En lluita

 

[1] http://www.primaverasound.es/?lang=en

[2] http://www.primaverasound.es/artistaSingle?idArtista=232&pro=1

[3] http://www.primaverasound.es/artistaSingle?idArtista=231&pro=1

[4] http://pro.primaverasound.com/showcase/view/id/50

[5] http://pro.primaverasound.com/activist/view/id/26

[6] http://pro.primaverasound.com/index/about

[7] http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869

[8] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

[9] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1047

[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMdYpnVOGQ

[11] http://boicotisrael.net/bds/guia-de-boicot-cultural-de-la-rescop/