CCFPeace

This month, several editorials have been published and countless toxic comments made on ­social media calling on artists to boycott the Sydney Festival.

The reason? The Israeli ­Embassy in Sydney wanted financially to support the artists, musicians and community of Sydney, a gesture of goodwill and friendship that has been offered in past festivals by numerous other ­embassies and internationally ­affiliated companies and organisations.

As an Australian who has worked with some of the most well-known cultural, film and music acts in the world, I feel compelled to respond to this disturbing, divisive and hugely counter­productive call. A call that harms local artists, unfairly demonises and dehumanises Israelis and ultimately damages the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

My work as an entertainment lawyer has included representation of film directors, writers and actors from all over the Middle East including Egyptians, Iranians, Saudis, Palestinians as well as Israelis. At the request of the Film Festival in Beirut, I was invited to teach a masterclass to young Middle Eastern filmmakers and share my 38 years of experience in an effort to help the next generation learn about the industry. The week that I spent there was one of the most fulfilling chapters of my career. It included leading a discussion with representatives from around the Middle East on how bringing ­together people in the arts is a way of finding commonality – building bridges together, not pulling them down.

During my career I’ve witnessed the power of cultural experiences, like music, to unite people of different backgrounds and from diverse communities. And I’ve used my platform to stand in solidarity with others.

The calls to boycott Israel, Israeli artists and festivals like this one merely dampen the constructive forms of engagement needed to bring Israelis, Palestinians and the international community together. They make it more difficult to establish trust, mutual understanding and compromise. Artists and entertainers have the ability to effect positive change and the selective targeting of Israel for a cultural boycott not only does not bring the region any closer to peace, but also fails and silences artists in the process.

In the worst instances, these boycotts have led to death threats against cultural icons including Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and songwriter Paul McCartney for merely wishing to visit Israel to play a friendly soccer match and perform at a concert there.

Hamas, which is a member of the boycott movement’s central committee, just publicly declared its support for the entertainers who have pulled out. Hamas is an internationally designated terrorist organisation whose aim is the destruction of Israel.

There’s a curious talking point used by those in favour of boycotting Israel and it can be found on the website of the activists spearheading the boycott of the Sydney Festival. It states: “Israel has long used culture and the arts to cloak its atrocities against the Palestinian people.” There is an insidious logic to such a statement. Are Israelis allowed to support the arts without being accused of doing so for shadowy reasons? Is every Israeli action, regardless of how benign, philanthropic or altruistic, an attempt to “cloak” Israeli domestic policies? Would we levy the same accusations against Australia? If so, is the Sydney Festival itself some sort of PR stunt to cover up our own ­nation’s shortcomings? This is a fallacious argument at its core.

There is such a thing as objective truth. And the assertion that Israel is an inherently racist, colonialist, apartheid state is simply not true. The calls to boycott Israeli-affiliated events like the Sydney Festival, push concepts of “us versus them” and “good versus evil”, paint the current conflict as undeniably simple. And if you question its supposed simplicity, you only prove your guilt of ­“oppression”. Those calling for this boycott refuse to acknowledge the considerable complexity, ­nuance and legitimate obstacles to peace that exist. They refuse to acknowledge that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and that more than half of Israelis are Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews who never left the Middle East when Jews were dispersed around the world by invaders centuries ago.

Recognising this truth doesn’t prevent peace, but allows for a mature, robust dialogue of how to achieve it. And it does so without misleading slogans, incendiary accusations and heated boycotts.

Unfortunately, the calls to boycott the Sydney Festival misrepresent basic truths about the Israeli state and weaponise indigeneity, while unfairly pressuring local artists from performing.

Let’s elevate the conversation, commit to being partners in peace, honour the lived history of Jews in their indigenous homeland and support local artists who want to perform in theirs.

While art can reflect politics, and artists can choose to reflect their politics in their own art, art should never become subservient to politics and artists and cultural events should never be forced to be politicised. Ultimately, the boycott movement is an affront to Palestinian and Israeli moderates alike who are seeking to reach peace through compromise, exchange and mutual recognition.

Craig Emanuel is the chair of the Entertainment and Media Practice of global legal firm Paul Hastings.

Craig Emanual is also an Advisory Board member of Creative Community for Peace.

Cover Photo: Decadance, produced by the Sydney Dance Company, at the Sydney Opera House by Daniel Boud.

An anti-­Israeli protest boycotting the Sydney Festival has been slammed as censorship for political purposes by celebrities around the world, including KISS frontman Gene Simmons.

By: Christopher Harris

Hollywood heavyweights have clapped back at anti-­Israeli protesters boycotting the Sydney Festival after the Israeli embassy handed over $20,000 to help the arts ­festival put on a series of ­contemporary dance performances by a world-renowned choreographer.

So far 11 events have been cancelled from the festival’s line-up of plays, concerts and other performances due to ­artists pulling out.

A Jewish leader on Thursday said nobody batted an eyelid when the Chinese Communist Party-controlled China Southern Airlines sponsored the festival for seven years but the latest partnership triggered outrage, including from comedian Tom Ballard who said the money should be handed back.

“I respectfully ask that (the Sydney Festival) review its ­decision and return the funding in question, and I call on other artists to consider joining this boycott, too,” Ballard said.

The cast and crew of the play Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner also pulled out, saying that remaining involved would mean being complicit with “the art-washing of their star sponsor’s apartheid state”.

But Hollywood heavyweights, including Nancy Spielberg, as well as KISS frontman Gene Simmons signed an open letter yesterday urging Australians to resist ­attempts at censorship for political purposes.

“While art can reflect politics and artists can choose to reflect their politics in their own art, art should never ­become subservient to politics, and artists and cultural events should never be forced to be politicised,” the letter said.

Warner Records chief executive Aaron Bay-Schuck and Australian ­musician Nick Cave were also among the 120 signatories to the letter, co-­ordinated by the Creative Community for Peace — a non-profit group promoting the arts as a means to counter anti-Semitism and oppose the cultural boycott of Israel.

The $20,000 reportedly paid by the Israeli embassy went to supporting the presentation of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Decadance at the Sydney Opera House from Thursday.

A festival spokesman said the performance was close to selling out, and of the 133 events originally scheduled, 11 were not proceeding.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said China had indirectly backed the event for years.

“Despite the accusations against China’s government regarding the genocide against the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, there were no similar boycott campaigns like we are seeing this year,” he said.

Cover photo: By gdcgraphics, <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0″ title=”Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0″>CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5218425″>Link</a>

For additional coverage visit:

Sky News

The Sydney Morning Herald 

NME Music

The Jerusalem Post 

Although they’ve performed predominantly cover songs since their inception in 2008, Rana Choir just released an original collaboration with Los Angeles-based indie pop band Distant Cousins.

Rana Choir is the only Jewish and Arab women’s choir in Israel. It features singers from Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths who consider one another family, and their very existence as a group is an anomaly in the Middle East. 

Although they’ve performed predominantly cover songs since their inception in 2008, Rana Choir just released an original collaboration with Los Angeles-based indie pop band Distant Cousins. The two groups are 7,000 miles away from each other, yet they managed to write and record a high-quality, professional sounding song, “Omdot B’Yachad / Wakfal Sawa” (“Standing Together”), using iPhones, Androids and Dropbox. 

“We were not interested in doing another song about peace and love,” Rana Choir Founder Mika Danny told the Journal. “We were all at a point where we felt very angry about the situation here, very frustrated with the situation between Arab and Jews inside Israel.” 

In Danny’s opinion, the prejudice and racism that come between people of different backgrounds in Israel is due to the fact that they don’t know each other personally. She sees Rana Choir as a vector to help people change their perceptions of one another. 

The idea for the collaboration came from  Ari Ingel, director of the L.A.-based entertainment industry nonprofit organization, Creative Community for Peace. The organization’s mission is to promote the arts for peace and use music to build bridges between diverse communities. Ingel knew of the inspiring story behind Rana Choir and thought they’d be a great fit for with Distant Cousins.

“We’re always looking to find people who are similarly aligned,” Ingel told the Journal. “Distant Cousins sent us a video they had done at the Staples Center with Muslim and Jewish kids here in L.A., and they did this amazing real-time workshop where they made a song with the kids in the room. They shout out different words and they play a chord. I thought it was phenomenal.” 

The way Distant Cousins worked with the children, Ingel thought, would be an excellent way to use the arts to showcase common ground between Jews and Arabs within Israel.

Distant Cousins frequently use their musical talents to write marketing jingles for prominent businesses. The trio is adept at making music by committee, as they have been creating music to order for over seven years.

The first songwriting session began with conversations between with Rana Choir members and Distant Cousins about what the women experience daily in regards to what they call “the situation” between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Distant Cousins members Dov Rosenblatt, Duvid Swirsky and Ami Kozak led the women of the choir in a deep discussion, eliciting thoughts and frustrations together—all via Zoom.

“THAT JUST MAKES FOR THE BEST SONGS BECAUSE IT COMES FROM A REAL PLACE.”
– DOV ROSENBLATT, DISTANT COUSINS

“These women were ready to share real, important conversations…just different issues that they face, [and] politically, the disappointment they feel,” said Rosenblatt. “That just makes for the best songs because it comes from a real place.”

Towards the end of the sharing session, they asked the choir, “Where do you see the light? Where do you see hope in this situation?”

“One of the things we see over and over again in these workshops is that no matter who the people are, it’s amazing how much we have in common with each other,” Swirsky said of the collaboration process. “Having that shared goal really helps people get closer.”

Distant Cousins had the singers listen to a few songs that would influence the overall tonality, including “Imagine” by John Lennon, “We Shall Overcome” by Joan Baez and “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan.

The conversation was mostly in English; Swirsky, who grew up in Israel, translated for the Hebrew speakers. Distant Cousins learned some new Arabic and Hebrew phrases and expressions in the process. 

However, Danny and the choir members insisted that the song must have a Middle Eastern sound, not Western, operatic or classical.

“I found out very quickly when I started working with the choir that the texture of the women’s different voices and accents is not a classical sound,” Danny said. “Their real forte is ethnic music.”

After that first sharing session, Rosenblatt, Swirsky and Kozak created a “word cloud” image of the most popular words Rana Choir members used in their discussion, including “country,” “future,” “cooperation,” “leaders,” “children,” “separatism,” “incitement,” “reality” and “people.”

Danny was impressed with how much the women’s struggles aligned in the challenging discussion. She was quick to point out, though, that the political opinions among the women of the choir are vastly divergent, yet their day-to-day challenges and desires are quite similar.

The guys of Distant Cousins came back with a song with a Middle Eastern tone, and lyrics mostly in English (with some Hebrew and Arabic interspersed throughout). These are the opening lines:

I am worried
I am tired
Where is our country?
Lost in a losing fight
To my children
You are my hope
Tomorrow will be better

Harmonies were written. The tenors, altos and sopranos were each assigned their respective arrangements. Rana Choir members recorded their parts and uploaded them to Dropbox, and Kozak layered and optimized the tracks, like any other song production. Drums and strings were added, and the result, “Omdot B’Yachad / Wakfal Sawa,” can be seen on YouTube. 

Looking back, Danny reflected on lessons the world can learn from Rana Choir.

“When you sing in a choir, the most basic thing is [that] you have to always listen carefully to the person on your right and on your left, and be synchronized with them,” Danny said. “I think we all listen much more when we sing than when we talk. Just listening is a good starting point for a dialogue. It creates a great intimacy, hearing each other’s voices, hearing the person next to you expressing at this specific moment.” 

Watch the entire video here.

Read the entire article on Jewish Journal here.

Helen Mirren, Mila Kunis and Zachary Quinto have slammed filmmakers calling for a boycott of an Israeli LGBTQ+ film festival.

Last year, moviemakers including Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger and Palme d’Or nominee Alain Guiraudie led calls for a boycott of the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ Film Festival in protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Ahead of this year’s event, a host of big names including Helen, Mila, Zachary, Neil Patrick Harris, Billy Porter, and Gene Simmons have signed a letter slamming activists and entertainment figures who back a boycott.

“We reject any attempt to boycott TLVFest – Israel’s largest LGBTQ Film Festival – which works to showcase the stories of LGBTQ people globally and create a brighter future for LGBTQ people both inside Israel and around the world,” their letter, published by the Creative Community for Peace nonprofit, reads. “We stand united with all the participating filmmakers against the divisive rhetoric espoused by boycott activists who seek to misinform, bully and intimidate artists into removing their films from the festival or shame them for participating in the festival.”

The upcoming event, also known as TLVFest, is slated to start on 11 November. Each year it comes under fire from activists from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement who demand their supporters cut cultural and economic ties with Israel.

The movement has some high-profile supporters, including Roger Waters, Brian Eno and Normal People author Sally Rooney, while Lorde also cancelled a concert in Israel at the request of fans backing a boycott.

However, it has been called antisemitic for its singling out of Israel for action, and acts including Radiohead and Nick Cave have slammed those requesting they do not perform in the Jewish state.

Click here to read the article.