Artists Against Apartheid launch in Sydney

Artists Against Apartheid launched an Australian chapter in Sydney last weekend at the end of the two day conference about Palestine at the University of technology, Sydney.
The “Temperatures Rising” conference was hosted by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. Aboriginal artist Adam Hill played didgeridoo along with Arab musicians on oud and guitar to launch the new Artists Against Apartheid movement which is part of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Following is a statement from Artists Against Apartheid.

As Artists aware of our colonial history, we recognise the dispossession of the Indigenous people of this Land, and we support the human rights of the Indigenous people of Palestine to live on their land with dignity – free from military occupation and the brutality of the Israeli Apartheid system.

Israel’s Apartheid regime over the Palestinian people is a system that separates and discriminates against people based on their ethnicity. It is a system that is institutionalised by laws and military force.

Artists Against Apartheid in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world. We stand in solidarity with the call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We actively support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. In so doing:

• We will use our creativity and work to raise community awareness of Israeli Apartheid practices, including demolition of Palestinian homes and land theft through settlement expansions.

• We will connect with Palestinian Artists under Occupation and make their voices heard beyond the Occupation. We will endeavour to interconnect Indigenous Artists of both Lands.

• We support the call for international artists not to perform or exhibit work in Apartheid Israel, unless in solidarity with anti-Apartheid events.

• We will not perform, exhibit or otherwise participate in events sponsored by the State of Israel or institutions complicit in its Apartheid.

• We will not perform, exhibit or otherwise participate in events which deceptively suggest symmetry or shared responsibility between ‘both sides’ for Israel’s ongoing colonial oppression of the Palestinian people and its system of Apartheid.

• We will adhere to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott Initiative (PACBI) Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel.

The Cultural Boycott of Israel, as a key component of the global BDS Movement, shall be maintained until Israel meets its moral and legal obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination by:

1. Ending its Occupation and colonisation of all Palestinian lands and dismantling the Apartheid Wall
2. Recognising the fundamental rights of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194

We call on all artists in Australia to support the vital BDS movement – a direct response by world citizens to the failure of so-called international diplomacy. It is no longer possible to remain silent. To be silent is to be complicit.
Artists Against Apartheid is a positive and non-violent movement that creatively works for justice in Palestine.

Artists Against Apartheid  (.au chapter)