No Dancing on Gaza's Graves--Boycott Israel

Start Date:	Jan 14, 2009		Thanks to you, we’re atDirect Goal met 100 Thanks!
End Date:	Feb 22, 2009
Goal Amount:	100
Current Amount:	100
Sponsor:	Middle East Task Force
Tags:	Democracy/Activism Human Rights/Torture Palestine/Israel Peace & Peacemaking Racism & Ethnic Rights
Description:

This e-letter is aimed at persuading the University Musical Society of Ann Arbor to honor the Palestinian people's boycott against Israel by canceling the Batsheva Dance Company performances on February14-15, 2009, and by endings its scheduling of Israeli performers until such time as the boycotts against Israel are ended by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee.

The Batsheva Dance Company is funded by the Israeli government, it has no Arab performers, and is "proud to be considered Israel's leading ambassador." Ohad Naharin, the dance company's director, is an Israeli army veteran and current Israeli soldiers/reservists also belong to the company.

Please plan to join us outside to nonviolently protest the performances unless the UMS cancels them. For more information on the Middle East Task Force and our campaigns go to: nextyearinalquds.blogspot.com

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Executive Director Ken Fischer Board Chair Clayton Wilhite Director Mary Sue Coleman Director Wadad Abed
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	I support the 2004 Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel and the 2005 call of 171 Palestinian civil society organizations to "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts ... against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." Therefore, I am writing to urge you to cancel the upcoming performance by the Batsheva Dance Company on February, 14-15, 2009. In hosting the Batsheva Dance Company the University Musical Society (UMS) is flouting the will of Palestinian people and helping to thwart a nonviolent campaign to bring justice and peace to Palestine-Israel. On December 27, 2008, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) issued a statement which I have excerpted below: "Today, the Israeli occupation army committed a new massacre in Gaza, causing the death and injury of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including a yet unknown number of school children who were headed home from school when the first Israeli military strikes started. This latest bloodbath, although far more ruthless than all its predecessors, is not Israel 's first. It culminates months of an Israeli siege of Gaza that should be widely condemned and prosecuted as an act of genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied coastal strip. "Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself – perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 1948, the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homes and land, partly through massacres like Deir Yassin; today, the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees, do not even have the choice to seek refuge elsewhere. Incarcerated behind ghetto walls and brought to the brink of starvation by the siege, they are easy targets for Israel's indiscriminate bombing. ... "Now, more than ever, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, calls upon international civil society not just to protest and condemn in diverse forms Israel's massacre in Gaza, but also to join and intensify the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violation of international law and Palestinian rights. Without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem." In light of the above, I urge the UMS to stop scheduling Israeli performers until such time as the boycotts against Israel are ended by the BNC. I will not support, financially or otherwise, the UMS or attend any of its performances until the UMS complies with the cultural boycott against Israel.
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Eletter Info
Eletter:	No Dancing on Gaza's Graves--Boycott Israel
Organization:	Middle East Task Force
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To: Executive Director Ken Fischer Board Chair Clayton Wilhite Director Mary Sue Coleman Director Wadad Abed
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Please, take a moment to recruit your friends and family to participate in the "No Dancing on Gaza's Graves--Boycott Israel" Petition campaign.

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Message*	I've just sent a message to the University Musical Society asking them to cancel the performance of an Israeli apartheid dance company and to honor the Palestinian people's boycott against Israel (bdsmovement.net). Please join me in this nonviolent act of resistance and solidarity.