12/09/2017
LDN Against Apartheid is a grassroots campaign established to oppose the Israeli government propaganda festival TLV in LDN, in solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the call for the cultural boycott of Israel.
While claiming to be a celebration of culture, TLV in LDN was in fact an entirely political enterprise. Festival director Marc Worth said that the Israeli embassy in London asked him to organise the event as a response to the BDS movement and in particular the cultural boycott. The original idea came from former Mayor of London and current UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who proposed it to the Israeli embassy to “make amends” for the decision by the Tricycle Theatre in London to reject Israeli embassy funding for a film festival during Israel’s onslaught on Gaza in 2014. The theatre’s decision was later retracted under heavy pressure, including from UK government minister Sajid Javid who threatened to cut off the small theatre’s own funding, a move Javid explained was intended as a wider threat to other UK cultural institutions not to try “that kind of thing again”.
Three years later, and following endorsements from both London mayoral candidates in 2016, TLV in LDN was announced, with the majority of the programme at iconic north London venue The Roundhouse. That venue’s artistic director and chief executive Marcus Davey is a signatory to a 2015 open letter which condemns the cultural boycott of Israel. This letter was itself a direct response to the announcement earlier that year that hundreds of UK artists had signed a pledge to adhere to the cultural boycott of Israel. At the time of writing more than 1200 UK artists have signed the Artists for Palestine pledge.
Advertisements appeared at bus stops across the capital in the weeks leading up to TLV in LDN, calling for its cancellation. Artists including Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, film director Ken Loach, rap artist Lowkey, leading playwright Caryl Churchill, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth joined more than 1000 UK residents in urging festival venues to withdraw their participation. Conscientious Londoners took to the streets outside the Roundhouse to demonstrate their opposition to the cynical propaganda of an apartheid regime and to express solidarity with Palestinian civil society in their call for the cultural boycott of Israel.
The Palestinian BDS human rights movement works to end international support for Israel’s regime of oppression and has three clear aims: the end of Israel’s occupation of all Arab lands and the dismantling of the apartheid wall; equality for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship; and respecting the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. Israel’s attempts to counter the BDS movement and thus prevent the implementation of international law are led by Gilad Erdan and the strategic affairs ministry. Erdan’s ministry employs ‘black ops’ and ‘dirty tricks’ against human rights defenders in its efforts to challenge BDS.
At the private launch of the festival, director Marc Worth said from the stage of the Roundhouse that the involvement of the strategic affairs ministry had been crucial, adding that the festival’s steering committee was comprised of officials from that ministry as well as from Israel’s embassy in London. The artistic producer of the festival said that “without the support of minister Erdan we would not be here tonight”. Erdan himself explained from the stage why he wanted to “spearhead” the festival, but nothing could be more obvious.
Israel’s apartheid regime recognises that its increasing isolation in the cultural sphere represents a threat to the perpetuation of its colonial policies. They also understand the importance of art in relation to struggles against oppression. Erdan said at the Roundhouse that “the power of culture can unite or divide”. On this point he is right. Millions of people around the world are united in opposition to Israel’s occupation and systematic human rights violations, and are standing together, in solidarity with Palestinians.
The festival was open about its goal of showing those younger British people who know little of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians the state’s “prettier face”, in the hope they will be converted into vocal advocates for Israel’s settler-colonial project. Even on its own terms, this desperate strategy is doomed to failure, as increasing numbers of people around the world, including in the UK, become alert to Israel’s flagrant disregard for international law.
This particular failed effort is only a small part of a far wider attempt by the apartheid regime to counter the growing Palestinian BDS human rights movement, including through shameful attempts by many Western governments to criminalise support for BDS on Israel’s behalf, including by the UK government. LDN Against Apartheid are also aware that there are plans being made for a repeat of TLV in LDN. But if and when similar events are announced for London, or New York or wherever else, people of conscience around the world will firmly oppose such cynical propaganda, as long as Palestinians are denied their fundamental rights.
https://ldnagainstapartheid.tumblr.com/post/165259641889/no-to-brand-israel
