The Doors‘ guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray
Manzarek
Dear Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors,
We are a group of Israeli citizens who support the human
rights-based Palestinian
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) [1]. We learned with dismay about your July 5th 2011
scheduled performance in Tel-Aviv, thus undermining a growing international
movement to end Israel’s
impunity and promote a just solution that respects human rights and
international law in Palestine\Israel.
As alumni of a rock band which has been subjected itself to
police brutality and was against the Vietnam war, it seems particularly
disappointing to us that you lend your voice and image to sustain and promote a
“business as usual” attitude towards occupation, apartheid and ethnic
cleansing. Your performance in Tel-Aviv is scheduled just days before the 6th
anniversary of the Palestinian
United Call for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with
international law and universal principles of human rights [2]. The BDS Call is inspired by a similar campaign of the
indigenous people of South
Africa against the apartheid regime there.
Since the BDS campaign was launched in 2005 many international artists and
public figures have acknowledged the parallels between these two colonial
conflicts – including the importance of boycott initiatives to both struggles.
Among those who have expressed support for the Palestinian BDS Call and
campaign are prominent activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South-African Artists Against Apartheid [3], Creative Workers Union of South Africa, the international
alliance Artists
Against Apartheid [4], Dave Randall [5] and Maxi Jazz of Faithless, Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack [6], filmmakers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh [8], 500 Montreal artists [9] and over 200 Irish artists [10].
The Doors in the good old days (archives) Photo: GettyImages
image bank
Surely you are aware of some of the violations of
international law committed by Israel
against the Palestinian people. In 2008-2009 Israel launched a vicious attack
against the besieged 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip, killing over 1434 people [11] (including 434 children) and wounding thousands while
targeting mostly civilians and destroying homes of thousands of people. Israel
performed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in that attack, as
investigated by the UN Fact Finding Mission
headed by Justice Richard Goldstone. Among those crimes described by Justice
Goldstone is the siege on Gaza
itself, which remains intact to this day, preventing all air, sea and ground
movement of people; restricting severely imports into the Strip and banning
exports almost completely. Lately, former Israeli chief of staff Ashkenazi
handed over to his successor the “Gaza
book of targets”, as Israeli air strikes and incursions continue to kill
and execute Gaza
civilians without trial [12]. Nonetheless, Israel has not yet faced sanctions
from world governments and official international bodies for its disregard of
international law. It is only civil society, primarily through the framework of
BDS, that is acting today to hold Israel accountable.
In 2004 the international court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the Israeli-built West Bank
separation wall, which annexes vast Palestinian land and most of East Jerusalem – is illegal. Yet, Israel has not
dismantled it and is on the course of completing its construction, a process
that typically involves uprooting Palestinian olive trees and destroying homes
and orchards.
Palestinians inside the West Bank are also kept under sieges
of sorts, which deny them free movement outside their “confined areas” by
checkpoints and the separation wall. While this means they could not come to
your show, this also has the much graver effect of a suffocating economic
repression, as UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk comments on the final
report of his mandate (22 October 2010) [13]. While Jewish settlers enjoy their privileged status
as citizens of the state and can travel freely in and out of the West Bank,
sometimes in their own designated roads (for Israeli citizens only),
Palestinians living in the same areas are governed by a military regime and
subjected to a poorly standardized military legal system designed to keep them
repressed. Palestinian demonstrations are violently attacked by the Israeli
army, killing dozens, and wounding, maiming and imprisoning hundreds in just a
few years. House and sometimes entire village demolitions are used as another
repression mechanism against the West Bank’s Palestinian population. Settlers’ violence against Palestinians enjoys the protection of both the
state and army, and is thus encouraged by them [14].
Inside proper Israel
the 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel face institutionalized
racial discrimination implemented by over two dozen laws [15]. By this Israel commits what is universally
recognized as the crime of apartheid. While dozens of new Jewish communities
and towns were established since the formation of the state, not one
Palestinian new community or town was allowed to be built. Instead, Israel
repeatedly destroys the villages and houses of the indigenous population of the
Naqab [16] (Negev), Lyd [17](Lod) and other communities. Israel has neglected its
Palestinian citizens in all social areas: education, health, transportation,
municipal services, etc. As a whole, they are unequivocally the poorest
citizens of a state which excludes them by its very definition and structure as
a “Jewish state”.
During the 1948 Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine [18] Israel
expelled 800,000 Palestinians and took over their houses and properties. Until
this very day most of the Palestinian people are refugees. Many live in refugee
camps in the West Bank, Gaza and in other Middle
East countries, awaiting their international law-anchored and UN sanctioned
return and compensation, which are forcefully withheld by Israel.
As was in the case of white South-Africans, most Israelis
believe today that complying with the Palestinian basic demands “will be the
end of us”. The lessons from South-Africa, however, are to the contrary. White
people there do not enjoy the privileged legal and institutional status by the
state as they used to, but they still, by and large – especially in economic
terms – form the elite and upper classes of society, far from fitting into the
nightmare scenarios of being “kicked out to the sea” as many Israelis would put
it. What the BDS Call specifies are in fact minimal requirements: to end the
1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, to cancel the apartheid inside
Israel, and to respect and promote the right of return and compensation for the
refugees.
The BDS Call was issued by over 170 civil society
organizations of all three parts of the Palestinian people: refugees, citizens
of Israel and West Bank and Gaza
residents. It received the support of almost the
entire community [19] of Palestinian cultural workers. Many international
artists cancelled their performances in Israel in response to BDS appeals,
including Elvis Costello [20], the Pixies, actors Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman,
American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron and Mexican American rock guitarist
Carlos Santana.
We hope you will not ignore this so acutely needed initiative
and cancel your show in Israel.
Sincerely,
Ayala Shani, Rachel Giora, Ohal Grietzer, Ofer Neiman, Oshra
Bar, Iris Hefets, Neta Golan, Ofra Ben Artzi, Joseph Dana, Jonatan Stanczak, Jonathan
Pollak, Leehee Rothschild, Dorothy Naor, Gal Lugassi, Connie Hackbarth, Sahar
Vardi, Adi Dagan, Haggai Matar, David Nir, Renen Raz, Tal Shapira, Edo Medicks,
Naama Farjoun
On behalf of: Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call
from within
[14] http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/01/28/beit-ommar-youth-brain-dead-after-shot-by-settlers/
[18] http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/exodus/Pappe,%20The%20Ethnic%20Cleansing%20of%20Palestine.pdf
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