Month: October 2018

Thousands call on Ballet BC to Not Perform in Israel

Press Release – Thousands call on Ballet BC to Not Perform in Israel… Read more

Press Release – Thousands call on Ballet BC to Not Perform in Israel
#NotOurAmbassadors

Update Oct. 31, 2018 – New article in Mondoweiss about the campaign, with the names of the other 2 dance companies involved finally released

Oct. 21, 2018
Earlier this month, BDS Vancouver activists launched a campaign after learning that Ballet BC was planning to perform in Israel in January, 2019. The petition that was started has now garnered over 4200 signatures, with a clear call to Ballet BC to not be complicit in helping Israel cover up its war crimes. Under the heading, “Tell Ballet BC, Don’t Dance on the Ruins of Palestinian Childhood”, the petition focused on examples of what performing in Israel would artwash, from the still pending demolition of Khan al Ahmar to the reduction of Gaza to an unliveable nightmare.
Ballet BC refused to answer, or even acknowledge, emails from the petition organizers and supporters, but they did send a statement to the media after the story was picked up by a Canadian media outlet. They said in part: “We have been invited to perform as a part of “CanaDance 2019,” a festival supported by the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv at the Suzanne Dellal Centre along with two other Canadian dance companies. We are honoured to be a part of this festival and to serve as ambassadors for British Columbia and Canada.”
However, a notice posted recently on the Suzanne Dellal Centre website shows only Ballet BC as performing. So, either the two other Canadian dance companies Ballet BC referred to have decided not to participate, or prefer to remain nameless for whatever reason. The website also does not yet show any sponsorship from the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv, but given statements by Ambassador Deborah Lyons who has been acting as a public relations advocate for Israel with her ridiculous #WowIsrael campaign, embassy sponsorship would not be a surprise.
The grassroots response to the petition, and some of the moving comments made by supporters, have been truly remarkable. This issue of Ballet BC performing in Tel Aviv, for a minimum ticket price of around $100 Canadian, while Palestinian kids in Gaza have only four hours of electricity per day and others are routinely arrested, beaten and live in fear of losing their homes and futures, seemed to hit a chord with British Columbians.

As petition commenters also noted, ballet is a beautiful art form, emphasizing freedom of movement but this is all the more reason that it cannot and should not be used to whitewash Israeli war crimes. And an open letter stated: “You may feel that art transcends politics and I wish that was the case. But if your performances in Israel will be used (as so many others before you have been) as ammunition for a government desperate to improve its international image, then you have entered into the world of politics whether you are aware of it or not.”
Campaign organizers are calling on Ballet BC one more time to take a stand and not perform in Israel, which would be a permanent stain on their record.

Canada Palestine Association

BC Attorney General Stonewalls on Israeli Wines in BC Liquor Stores

BC Attorney General David Eby finally responded to two of the initiating… Read more

BC Attorney General David Eby finally responded to two of the initiating groups on an Open Letter, regarding BC government liquor stores carrying Israeli wines in violation of international humanitarian laws. Mr. Eby refused to meet with representatives of the 30 groups who sponsored and endorsed the letter, and insisted again to focus solely on the “customers’ right to make choices”. Here is the public answer to Eby from CPA Vancouver and BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish.
___________________________________________

Public Response to David Eby regarding Israeli wines in BC Liquor Stores
Oct. 17, 2018

Dear Mr. Eby:

Thank you for your brief replies to our concerns.

Once again, you have completely ignored the issues raised on this subject, this time brought forward by 30 organizations. We mentioned in our open letter that selling Israeli wines in BC liquor Stores is “in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention”. The UN Security Council, UN General Assembly and the Canadian government recognize the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel is in violations of many articles of this convention, including the theft of Palestinian land, building colonies in the occupied territories and transferring several hundreds of thousands of its citizens to live in them, in contravention of articles 49 and 53. Israel also expropriates and exploits the natural resources in the occupied territory to meet the needs of the occupying power, in violation of article 55. The wine that is carried in the BC Liquor Stores is the product of these Israeli settler colonialists who stole Palestinian land and its agricultural and natural resources.

The Federal Government currently imposes sanctions against 20 countries, 11 of them in the Middle East (the list does not include Israel nor Saudi Arabia), so we ask where is your “customers’ right to make choices” there?
And as noted in the open letter, these wines are mislabelled as “made in Israel” in an attempt to hide product origin, something that is currently being challenged in the Canadian courts. So how can a consumer make choices when they are not even aware of what they are buying?

As you can see, this is not a matter of a “customers’ right to make choices”. The only choices being made in these circumstances are the wrong choices. As Attorney General, would you advise any police department to not curtail the selling of stolen products in BC stores, because it infringes on a “customers’ right to make choices”?!

We feel your government is simply hiding behind the liberal façade of “customer choice” in order to avoid any meaningful discussion about your role in enabling the dispossession of the Palestinian people. Violating the many articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention amounts to war crimes. Supporting these violations is complicity in them.
As the anti Apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

And finally, your unwillingness to meet with us demonstrates an arrogance and disinterest in issues of serious concern to your constituents and British Columbians, a very disappointing approach for someone who claims to be interested in rectifying social and historical injustices.

Hanna Kawas, Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
Aiyanas Ormond, Coordinator, BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish

c.c. All Signatory Groups on the Open Letter

CBC Ombudsman Responds to our Complaint – Was it Worth the Wait??

So, after a five and a half month wait, the CBC Ombudsman Office finally produced… Read more

So, after a five and a half month wait, the CBC Ombudsman Office finally produced their review of our complaint about biased coverage and specifically their change of specific wording in their March 30th coverage of the Land Day Massacre.
Not surprisingly, they exonerated themselves and concluded they are not “beholden” to any interest group and the coverage did not violate CBC policy. The review, entitled “Watch your language – finding the right words to cover conflict in the Middle East”, said: “Language usage around this conflict is always fraught – any language changes made were consistent with CBC New’s own guidelines.”

The most damning part of our criticism had been that they changed specific terminology in Derek Stoffel’s reporting after receiving a complaint from the so-called “Honest Reporting Canada” HRC, a well-known pro-Israel lobby group.
However, CBC News Executive Director Jonathan Whitten stated:
“To the extent that Derek changed wording as the fast moving events of the day unfolded, it was to bring that wording into line with our own language guide.”
The Ombudsman report did go on to note that the language was changed following receipt of the HRC complaint:
“He (Whitten) added that the two examples of CBC language usage being questioned by HonestReporting were two of hundreds from the organization which accuse CBC of bias. He said CBC News staff look at each of them, as they do other criticisms or accusations of other sides in the conflict. They adjust the work when they have made errors or violated CBC journalistic policy.”
So to sum up: yes, they changed the language due to the HRC complaint, but only because they had made a mistake and the original version was not in line with their policies. However, in a later section, the Ombudsman review states, regarding the use of the term Israeli Arabs rather than Palestinians:
“The CBC Middle East language guide does not list a preferred usage. CBC news managers might want to provide some guidance. I am told that it has been CBC practice to use the term “Israeli Arab” and that is the reason it was changed – to be consistent with that practice.”

And then after a lengthy analysis about the difficulties of balancing reporting, the review concluded with this:
“I can tell you that Mr. Whitten is correct when he says the two examples you cite, quoting HonestReporting’s assertion that they have influenced the reporting, is two of many that come to this office. They also come from other interest groups. There is no merit to your contention that CBC News is beholden to any side in this conflict.
CBC News and current affairs have presented many stories and interviews which reflect the views and analysis of both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. The stories did not violate CBC policy.”

And yes, HRC did brag on their website about how CBC had “implemented their suggestions”. However, they have subsequently modified that line, perhaps realizing how crass it sounded, by trying to claim our original complaint was promoting “an outrageous Jewish conspiracy theory” by claiming “Jews control the media”. This ridiculous leap of logic was even reported by CJ News in an article on Sept. 28, 2018.
We were not aware that HRC represented all Jews, or were mandated to speak in the name of all Jews. We are also fully aware that our complaint dealt solely with the influence of the Zionist pro-Israeli lobby and even more specifically with the actions of HRC itself.
Regretfully, this is an increasing trend in Canada in recent months; the intentional conflation by pro-Israel groups of Judaism with Zionism and all Jews with the actions of Israel is dangerous and will in itself contribute to anti-Semitism.

What is the lesson here? That the Canadian media in general, with a few notable exceptions, is complicit in implementing the corporate and imperial agenda – we should expect no significant changes or improvements in how that media portrays the struggles of indigenous and marginalized peoples, including the Palestinians.

Ballet BC: Don’t Dance on the Ruins of Palestinian Childhood!

Please sign the Petition

An Open Letter to Ballet BC regarding their Performances… Read more

Please sign the Petition

An Open Letter to Ballet BC regarding their Performances in Israel
By Marion Kawas

October 2, 2018
John Clark, Executive Director
executivedirector@balletbc.com

Dear Mr. Clark:

As a young child, my mother took me to see The Nutcracker; when I became a mother, I did the same with my daughter and took her to a Ballet BC production of The Nutcracker, a tradition I was hoping to repeat soon with my granddaughter.
However, I have now learned that Ballet BC is touring in Israel in January, 2019. As global artists, I am sure you are aware of the international movement by many cultural figures to refuse to perform in Israel until it complies with international law. Figures such as Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Lana del Rey, and Brian Eno, who refused to allow the Israeli dance company Batsheva to use one of his musical compositions at a performance in Italy.

In an article in The Guardian newspaper on September 7, 2016, Eno was quoted as saying: “It’s often said by opponents of BDS that art shouldn’t be used as a political weapon. However, since the Israeli government has made it quite clear that it uses art in exactly that way – to promote ‘Brand Israel’ and to draw attention away from the occupation of Palestinian land – I consider that my decision to deny permission is a way of taking this particular weapon out of their hands.”

BDS stands for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that has called on artists, sports figures and others to realize exactly what Brian Eno has said, that the Israeli government is using them to whitewash what is happening right now, today, to the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian village of Khan al Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, for example, is under imminent threat of demolition by Israeli forces. A decision that has been sanctioned by the Israeli High Court and condemned by many in the international community. The children of that village are about to lose their only school (a humble structure built from old tires and clay). Do you not think they would also like a chance to grow and appreciate culture, perhaps even ballet or dance of any form? Would this not be a pivotal experience for those children?
But no, they will never have that chance as even basic learning is about to be interrupted, let alone exposure to fine arts like music and dance.

And what about the children in Gaza, whose basic living becomes more untenable by the day, with unclean drinking water and electricity for just 4 hours a day and poor medical care?
And what about the millions of Palestinian refugee children, many of them languishing in refugee camps and in exile, who are forbidden to return to their ancestral homes and properties?

You may feel that art transcends politics and I wish that was the case. But if your performances in Israel will be used (as so many others before you have been) as ammunition for a government desperate to improve its international image, then you have entered into the world of politics whether you are aware of it or not.

The story of The Nutcracker is the story of a young girl taken to a magical land, and has become a Christmas favourite for many. For Palestinian children, their only holiday dreams are nightmares that include losing family members, being terrorized by Israeli soldiers during raids on family homes, and losing all hope for the future. It is incumbent on those of us who have the benefits of privilege and resources to show these children that the world has not forgotten them, will not forget them and is willing to take a stand to say that Israel must respect international law and the human rights of Palestinians.

Marion Kawas,
Vancouver, BC

Canadian Media Report on our Petition to Ballet BC