Dear Ana Moura,
Your Irish fans and the many Irish lovers of Fado music will be eager to give you a warm Irish welcome when you perform in our National Concert Hall on 19th January next.
However, if you persist with your plan to perform in Israel on 27th January, in violation of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of the Israeli state, that welcome will be balanced by a demonstration against your indifference to the fate (= “fado”) of the Palestinian people.
In his Christmas message, the Mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh (a Roman Catholic) has called for “boycotting Israel culturally, educationally, in sports, economics and trade. This is the only way to make Israel come back to the negotiating table and make peace… It worked with South Africa.”
The Mayor is not alone in making this call, which echoes the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, issued by 170 Palestinian civil society organisations. This call has subsequently been repeated by Palestinian artists, filmmakers, and cultural organisations.
The fate of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation includes dispossession, colonisation, imprisonment without trial, torture, siege (in the case of Gaza), deprivation of the necessities for a decent existence, and the constant threat of injury or murder by soldiers and settlers. Palestinian artists and sportspeople are frequently prevented by the Israeli authorities from travelling abroad. The Israeli foreign ministry has stated that it “sees no difference between propaganda and culture.”
In 2009 Israeli police raided the Palestinian National Theatre and shut down the opening of the Palestinian Literature Festival, just one example of how Israel prevents the Palestinians of East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Territories from celebrating their culture. Palestinian artists are frequently prevented from travelling abroad. Your own Palestinian fans will be prevented from attending your Tel Aviv concert, should you persist with it.
If you perform in Tel Aviv, you will be lending yourself to Israel’s propaganda. Please do not let yourself be exploited in order to “normalise” and whitewash the Israeli state. Please ensure that your welcome to Ireland will be unconditional by cancelling your planned performance in Tel Aviv.
Yours in solidarity.
Raymond Deane
On behalf of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
