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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Activism Home page  back Print  Send To friend Sandra Hebron (UK) attends the The British Film Festival in Tel Aviv in spite of appeals by Israeli BDS Activists BfW`s letter followed by SH`s response: 4/2/12 Dear Sandra Hebron, We (Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from Within - BfW) are a group of Israeli citizens active against our government`s policies of racism, occupation and apartheid. Your email contact was passed to us by British artist and filmmaker, John Smith, who is also a supporter of British Artists for Palestine and the British Committee for Universities of Palestine. We have learned that you are scheduled to speak at The British Film Festival in Tel Aviv on 9 and 10 February. We would like to ask you to reconsider your decision. The British Film Festival is an integral part of the British Council`s programme of film activity supporting the UK-Israel Co-Production Film Treaty which was ratified earlier this year, after its launch at the Haifa International Film Festival. The British Council is an organization that the Palestinian Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has previously taken to task for promoting cultural cooperation with Israel through the BI Arts scheme, co-funded by the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The British Council is, therefore, part of the same UK officialdom that has regularly granted immunity to Israel and has refrained from imposing sanctions of any kind upon this rogue state. Festivals and similar events, put on by state-supported cultural institutions in Israel, are occasions par excellence for the Israeli rebranding campaign, and are used by officials to discredit the growing international support for Palestinian civil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), as well as to show off Israel as a cultural and artistic haven. Palestinians have been living under a brutal military occupation for decades, dispossessed by the ongoing state-sponsored, illegal colonisation of their land. The Israeli state and its apologists seek to portray Israel within the 1949 `Green line` as a liberal democracy. This is in spite of the fact that the average Palestinian community inside Israel has lost up to 75% of its land since 1948, while a quarter of all Palestinian citizens are internally displaced, their property confiscated for use by the state and Jewish towns. An estimated 90,000 Palestinian citizens live in dozens of `unrecognised villages`, which suffer from home demolitions and a lack of basic infrastructure. Israeli officials openly talk of `Judaizing` areas and tackling the `threat` posed by non-Jewish citizens. Residency in many Israeli towns is managed by committees that filter out those deemed `unsuitable` for the `social fabric`. As Ben White points out in his recent New Statesman article, these are just a few examples of what Professor Oren Yiftachel has described as an `ethnocracy`: `Despite declaring the regime as democratic, ethnicity (and not territorial citizenship) is the main determinant of the allocation of rights, powers, and resource ... [and] the logic of ethnic segregation is diffused into the social and political system.` We are therefore asking you to heed our call, which is also the call coming from Palestinian civil society, and support the BDS campaign, by cancelling your talks in Tel Aviv. We will gladly address any comments or questions you may have. Sincerely, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from Within (BfW) admin@boycottisrael.info boycottisrael.info --- Dear BfW Thank you for your email, and for making me aware of your group and its concerns. I know and respect John, and I am grateful to you for outlining your position. However, I gave a great deal of thought as to whether to accept the British Council`s invitation to participate in the British Film Festival, and having made a decision to accept I will not be cancelling my visit. Yours sincerely Sandra Hebron -- o n Links to the latest articles in this section Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Saturday night protests: No to Netanyahu`s war!