UPDATE: Entertaining Apartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!

EntertainingApartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!

OpenLetter to Amnesty International

July30, 2009

InMay, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycottof Israel (PACBI) calledon singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen toheed the Palestiniancall fora cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity with Israel’sviolations of international law by cancelling his planned Septemberconcert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes inGaza earlier this year. Sadly, according to a July28 article inthe JerusalemPost,Amnesty International USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen indealing with Israel on the basis of business as usual. AmnestyInternational USA will serve as sponsor of a new fund that willwhitewash the money raised at Cohen’s concert in Israel by using itto finance programs for “peace.”  Beingone of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights andinternational law, you shall thus be subvertinga non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and internationalcivil society to end Israel's violations of international law andhuman rights principles. Wecall onyouto be true to your values and immediately withdraw support forLeonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel.

TheJerusalem Post report indicates that Cohen and his PR staff, havingbeen criticized for trying to normalize Israel’s occupation andapartheid, are trying to whitewash the concert in Israel by usingAmnesty International USA’s good name. According to the article,“All of the net proceeds from Leonard Cohen's September 24 concertat Ramat Gan Stadium will be earmarked for a newly established fundto benefit Israeli and Palestinian organizations that are workingtoward conciliation,” and the fund will be “sponsored byAmnesty.”  CurtGoering, the senior deputy executive director of AmnestyInternational USA, told thePost,"We saw this as an exciting opportunity with potential torecognize, support and pay tribute to the Israelis and Palestinianswho have been working for peace and human rights amid a difficultenvironment and insurmountable odds. I see our participation ascomplementary to what we do, even though this initiative is differentfrom Amnesty's ongoing work."

WHYWE ARE CALLING ON AMNESTY TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PROJECT

Bysupporting Cohen’s concert in Israel, Amnesty International isactively undermining a particularly successful effort by Palestinianand international civil society to end Israel's occupation and otherviolations of international law and human rights principles.  Wefind this position by Amnesty particularly frustrating and puzzlinggiven your callfor an arms embargo against Israelfollowing its atrocities in Gaza earlier this year, which yourorganization described as constituting war crimes.

Acceptingfunds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is theequivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City inapartheid South Africa. Profits earned through violations of humanrights and international law are tainted and should not be acceptedby any morally consistent human rights organization, particularlywhen this money is intended to be used to whitewash the veryviolations behind those profits.

Furthermore,your Israeli partners in this venture actively hinder efforts toachieve a just peace. The Peres Center for Peace, with itsmulti-million dollar annual budget and fifteenmillion dollar building,is listed incongruously by the Jerusalem Post as both a beneficiaryof the fund and a member of the new fund’s Board of Trustees. ThePeres Center hasbeen denounced byleading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting jointPalestinian-Israeli projects that are “neither effective inbringing about reconciliation, nor desirable” and that enhance“Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoringjustice to Palestinians, in the face of continued Israeli Governmentviolations of international law and fundamental Palestinian humanrights, including breaches of the Geneva Conventions.” A columnistin Israel’s HaaretzDaily calledthe Peres Center patronizingand colonial,explaining that “Efforts are being made to train the Palestinianpopulation to accept its inferiority and prepare it to survive underthe arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel, to guarantee the ethnicsuperiority of the Jews.”

Yourother indirect partner in this project, according to the JerusalemPost, is Israel Discount Bank, a key sponsor of the Cohen concert. Who Profits, a project of Israel’s Coalition of Women forPeace, reportsthat IsraelDiscount Bank has branches in the settlements of Beitar Illit andMaale Adumim, has financed construction in the settlements of HarHoma, Beitar llit and Maale Adumim, and is a major shareholder in afactory in a settlement. Amnesty hardly needs any reminder that allIsraeli colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian territoryare not only illegal under international law but are considered warcrimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention. Your intention to indirectlypartner with a bank that profits from the occupation and to oversee afund that uses some of that legally and morally stained moneycontradicts Amnesty’s founding principles and commitment to humanrights.

Thelatest attempt by the Cohen team to find an alternative Palestinianfig leaf has also failed. Theonly Palestinian organization falsely reported in the Jerusalem Postarticle as being a partner in this project, the Palestinian HappyChild Center, has confirmed that it is not taking part. There isno Palestinian organization participating in this whitewash.

BACKGROUNDON THE BOYCOTT

Withthe international community failing to take action to stop Israelioppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by theinternational boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheidin South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls forBoycott,Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)against Israel, including an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.Endorsed by nearlysixty Palestinian cultural and civil society organizationsand inspired by the South African anti-apartheid boycotts, PACBIcallson “the internationalcommunity to comprehensivelyand consistently boycott all Israeli academic and culturalinstitutions asa contribution to the struggle to end Israel‘s occupation,colonization and system of apartheid.” These Palestinian callshave inspired a growing international boycott movement which gainedadded momentum following Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter.

InApril, the BritishCommittee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and over100 Israelis calledon Leonard Cohen to cancel his planned September concert in Israel. Protests against Cohen’s plans to play in Israel were then held atCohen’s concerts in NewYork,Boston,Ottawa and Belfast,among other cities. Feeling the rising heat of the protests, Cohentried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” hisconcert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallahconcert. The Palestinian group that was supposed to host the Ramallahevent cancelled its invitation to Mr. Cohen after realizing theadverse effects this would have on the boycott movement, which iswidely supported by Palestinians. Reflecting the general mood inPalestinian society against any claimed symmetry between theoccupying power and the people under occupation, a July 12 PACBIstatementexplained, “Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intenton whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by performing inIsrael. PACBI has always rejected any attempt to ‘balance’concerts or other artistic events in Israel--conscious acts ofcomplicity in Israel‘s violation of international law and humanrights--with token events in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Forall the above reasons, we strongly urge you to distance AmnestyInternational from this discredited project and its tainted money.

Signed:

ThePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI),Adalah-NY:The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East,TheAlternative Information Center(AIC),AmericanJews for a Just Peace(US), Architectsand Planners for Justice in Palestine(UK),Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within(Israel), BritishCommittee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP),IndependentJewish Voices(Canada),InternationalJewish Anti-Zionist Network,IrelandPalestine Solidarity Campaign,JewsAgainst the Occupation-NYC,Jewsfor Boycotting Israeli Goods(UK),MiddleEast Children’s Alliance(US), NewYork Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI),NewYork City Labor Against the War,PalestineSolidarity Campaign(UK),PlataformaAturem la Guerra(Stopthe War Platform, Barcelona), style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif">