Summary
The institutional boycott of Israeli cultural institutions and state-sponsored cultural events called for by PACBI, modelled on the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa and directed against complicity and Brand Israel whitewashing, not against individual artists (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, PDF p.120-123, p.127).
Details
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PACBI never issued a call for ostracizing individual Israeli academics, writers and artists; unlike South Africa’s blanket boycott, the Palestinian boycott targets institutions only, with no political testing or blacklisting (PDF p.121).
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Precedents: the 1965 American Committee on Africa declaration, the 1964 Irish playwrights’ declaration, and the UN General Assembly’s December 1980 resolution on the cultural boycott of South Africa (PDF p.122-123).
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PACBI’s guidelines principle: an event under the sponsorship of an official Israeli body [or a Brand Israel type body] “constitutes complicity and therefore is deserving of boycott” (PDF p.127).
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Episodes in Chapter 7: the Batsheva protests in New York (September 2010), the “No Reason to Celebrate Israel at 60” advertisement (2008), the Alvin Ailey company’s 2008 performance, and Faithless’s refusal to perform (PDF p.127-135).
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Appendix 4 prints PACBI’s revised October 2010 guidelines for the cultural boycott: “virtually all Israeli cultural institutions, unless proven otherwise, are complicit”, and five categories — products commissioned by an official Israeli body or a Brand Israel effort are boycottable; products merely funded by an official body without political strings are not per se boycottable, nor is “the individual product of an Israeli cultural worker per se” without official sponsorship; events sponsored by an official or complicit body constitute complicity (the Foreign Ministry “service provider” contract is quoted); and events promoting false symmetry or “balance” are strong candidates for boycott (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, PDF p.246-252).
Related pages
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, PACBI, Academic boycott, Brand Israel, BDS movement, Nadine Gordimer