When the Festival Board dismissed our objections to Israeli embassy funding, it had no idea of the massive support that artists would show for our cause.
The Sydney Opera House, May 25, 2014
To the Board of the Sydney Festival,
Each time I sit down ready to write to you, I get back up again. To write this letter means having to negotiate the grief, disappointment, and frustration. But thankfully, reflecting on these last few weeks also offers a reservoir of joy, energy, and gratitude.
Having met you with my colleagues just short of a month ago, you may already know why this is the case. We came to you as an intersectional, intergenerational collective of artists — all with histories of deep engagement in creative, activist, academic, and community practice — to tell you why it is harmful that one of Australia’s most iconic, annual cultural events has embraced the Israeli Embassy in Canberra as a “Star Partner” of its 2022 program. We were informed that the embassy’s $20,000 sponsorship was going toward a show conceived by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin and produced by the Sydney Dance Company.
We explained to you that the very source of these funds is, in fact, an apartheid regime that is systemically oppressing and dispossessing the Palestinian people. We elaborated, that while the Israeli state purports to promote free artistic and cultural exchange, in the same breath, it persecutes and punishes Palestinian artists and performers like Dareen Tatour and Hafez Omar for daring to speak out against its violence. That this state’s occupation forces are systematically attacking Palestinian cultural institutions, disrupting their events, destroying historical archives, and denying Palestinians access to their own creative legacies. That the regime you accepted funds from prevents Palestinians from practicing their own art, let alone traveling to perform, participate, or collaborate in artistic opportunities abroad.
In requesting our meeting with you, we paused our pain and trauma for the sake of “due process,” to have a good faith discussion about the violent dehumanization of Palestinians. You revealed to us, however, that you had actively pursued this partnership with Israel in May 2021 — when the world watched as Israel bombed the besieged people of Gaza, shot at protesters in the occupied West Bank, threatened Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah with dispossession, and arrested hundreds of Palestinian citizens inside Israel.
Israeli police detain a Palestinian woman in Sheikh Jarrah, May 10, 2021. (Oren Ziv)
We urged you not to be indifferent to Israel’s atrocities, nor to ignore the violence inflicted upon our families in exile, nor to be dismissive of our liberation struggle spanning decades and continents. We hoped it would be a teachable moment; that you would embody ethical leadership and have the courage to commit Sydney Festival as an anti-racist apartheid-free zone, and reject this partnership with the Israeli Embassy. No logo, no matter how colorful it is, should be allowed to distract from Israel’s war crimes, nor can Israel be allowed to “public relations” its way out of apartheid.
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