Friday 29 March 2024 
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Pro-Palestinian artists withdraw from Sydney festival over Israeli sponsorship deal

A coalition of pro-Palestinian artists and others have withdrawn their participation from the 2022 Sydney Festival, and are calling for a boycott of the event over its ties to Israel.

The 2022 Sydney Festival signed a $20,000 “Star Partner” sponsorship agreement with the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, which supports the festival’s scheduled performance by the Sydney Dance Company of a work called “Decadence” by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.

 

Naharin said in 2019 that he supports the efforts of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which aims to isolate Israel internationally. Yet he maintained in 2016 that such boycotts are “essentially useless” and there are better ways to advance the Palestinian cause.
 

The Palestine Justice Movement Sydney stated on Wednesday that the South Asian dance company Bindi Bosses, the Arab Theatre Studio, the Arabic music ensemble Dandana, and journalist Amy McQuire have pulled out of the festival due to its partnership with the Israeli embassy. Writer Michael Mohammed Ahmad rejected an opportunity to join the festival’s board, the group further claimed, while artist Khaled Sabsabi, rapper Barkaa, and comedian Nazeem Hussain have also withdrawn from the event.
 

“By partnering with Israel, Sydney Festival will be complicit in Israel’s strategy to art-wash its crimes, and will contribute to the normalization of an apartheid state,” said the Palestine Justice Movement Sydney, which urged other participants and members of the public to boycott the event.

 

In an open letter co-written by Ahmad and published on Thursday, seven artists and writers accused the festival of “creating a culturally unsafe environment for Arab artists and audiences who want to be part of the festival but who now cannot, in good conscience, participate as they bear witness to the slaughter, occupation and oppression of Palestinians.”




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