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French pop star Vanessa Paradis has become the latest high profile cultural star to cancel a performance in Israel following calls to do so by fans and human rights campaigners.

Earlier this week, La MaMa, one of the most revered counter-cultural theatrical institutions in the world, presented a work, "Show Your Face," part of the Under the Radar festival, in which the performers, after depicting a demonstration in which the demonstrators were mowed down by securitiy forces, ranted at the audience for turning a blind eye to torture, repression, and war crimes, terminating with the accusatory refrain, directed at the spectators, "And you do nothing!" Perhaps they should have been directing

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel appeals to BDS activists in the United States to boycott the US tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in February and March 2011, due to its complicity in whitewashing Israel‘s persistent violations of international law and human rights. The IPO is scheduled to perform in Palm Beach, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles [1]. We urge activists to continue the principled tradition of activists in New York and Los Angeles in 2007, when they protested the IPO’s appearance in their cities. [2]

Earlier this week, La MaMa, one of the most revered counter-cultural theatrical institutions in the world, presented a work, "Show Your Face," part of the Under the Radar festival, in which the performers, after depicting a demonstration in which the demonstrators were mowed down by securitiy forces, ranted at the audience for turning a blind eye to torture, repression, and war crimes, terminating with the accusatory refrain, directed at the spectators, "And you do nothing!" Perhaps they should have been directing

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel appeals to BDS activists in the United States to boycott the US tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in February and March 2011, due to its complicity in whitewashing Israel‘s persistent violations of international law and human rights. The IPO is scheduled to perform in Palm Beach, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles [1]. We urge activists to continue the principled tradition of activists in New York and Los Angeles in 2007, when they protested the IPO’s appearance in their cities. [2]

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel appeals to BDS activists in the United States to boycott the US tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in February and March 2011, due to its complicity in whitewashing Israel‘s persistent violations of international law and human rights. The IPO is scheduled to perform in Palm Beach, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles [1]. We urge activists to continue the principled tradition of activists in New York and Los Angeles in 2007, when they protested the IPO’s appearance in their cities. [2]

Irish singer-songwriter Dylan Walshe became the landmark 200th signatory to the “Irish Artists’ Pledge to Boycott Israel”, which commits endorsers to not “avail of any invitation to perform or exhibit in Israel, nor to accept any funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights”.

  The campaign against Adidas' sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon, which will pass through Occupied East Jerusalem, is gathering pace. BDS activists in London have held an action against the sports giant's Covent Garden Store: Today, Palestine solidarity activists visited the Adidas store in Covent Garden, London, to protest the company’s sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon, due to take place in March 2011.

The failure of Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer to appear at the ASB tennis classic in Auckland, New Zealand, this week is a significant victory for the BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) campaign against apartheid Israel. Despite being the subject of protest in 2009 and 2010 Peer was adamant she would to return to Auckland. She told media last year she was keen to come back. We expected her to enter the tournament at the last minute to avoid early publicity and controversy.

PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, recently released its December 2010 newsletter, with many informative updates and articles. It is available here: http://www.pacbi.org/newsletter/december2010.php

If 2010 witnessed an exceptional growth of the global BDS movement, especially in the cultural and consumer products fields, one of the main challenges facing the movement in 2011 will be to start putting into effect concrete boycott measures against Israeli universities and to further spread the artists’ boycott of Israel.