PHOTO ESSAY ~~ DON’T HARMONIZE WITH ISRAELI APARTHEID

February 24, 2011 at 14:01 (Activism, Associate Post, Boycott Israel, DesertPeace Exclusive, International Solidarity, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, Photography)

  

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Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos © by Bud Korotzer

  

On the evening of February 22nd in NYC about 70 people from Adalah-NY, Jews Say No !, War Resistors League, Al-Awda-NY and several other organizations held a protest across the street from Carnegie Hall where the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) was about to perform.  As concert goers arrived, many coming in limos wearing formal evening attire, sparkling in gems, and dripping in fur, they were noticeably astonished to see and hear the tumult going on across the street.  They stopped on the curb to read the placards and hear the chants and songs.  Some took photos.

 

Some demonstrators were within the crowd waiting to get into Carnegie Hall.  They handed out mock IPO programs with a photo on the front of the IPO playing for Israeli soldiers with tanks in the background.  Inside the program there was a call for an international boycott of the orchestra.

 

The orchestra will face 6 similar protests along their tour route.  These protests are a response to the call from Palestinian civil society to boycott any Israeli organization that seeks to distract the world from the Israeli apartheid policies used against the Palestinian people as well as the occupation of Palestinian land and the oppression of Palestinians within Israel, the territories, and those living in exile. 

 

While the IPO does not discuss Israeli policy it is described by American Friends of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra as “Israel’s finest cultural emissary,” which “travels throughout the world…The goodwill created by these tours… is of enormous value to the State of Israel.  As a result, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra maintains it’s position as the forefront of cultural diplomacy and the international music scene.”

 

Israeli billionaire, Lev Leviev, is a corporate sponsor of the IPO tour.  He held a fundraising gala for them in November.  Leviev’s companies have been shunned by UNICEF, CARE, Oxfam, film stars, and international investment companies because of Leviev’s construction of Israeli colonies (“settlements”) on Palestinian land and human rights abuses in his diamond industry in Southern Africa.

 

Noelle Ghoussaini of Adalah-NY said, “Tonight we sent a clear message to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israeli government’s ‘Brand Israel’ campaign that their music cannot drown out the Palestinian’s call for justice.”  Those supporting human rights all over the world will not allow cultural ambassadors to stamp a happy face on what Israel is doing to the Palestinian men, women, and children.

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