The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel reports:
We are now pleased to announce that we have received confirmation
from the Palestinian Prisoners‘ Club Society that they will not be
hosting Leonard Cohen in Ramallah. A strong consensus has emerged
among all parties concerned that Cohen is not welcome in Ramallah as
long as he insists on performing in Tel Aviv, even though it had been
claimed that Cohen would dedicate his concert in Palestine to the cause
of Palestinian prisoners. Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as
he is intent on whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by
performing in Israel.PACBI has always rejected any attempt to "balance" concerts or
other artistic events in Israel–conscious acts of complicity in
Israel‘s violation of international law and human rights–with token
events in the occupied Palestinian territory. Such attempts at "parity"
not only immorally equate the oppressor with the oppressed, taking a
neutral position on the oppression (thereby siding with the oppressor,
as Desmond Tutu famously said); they also are an insult to the
Palestinian people, as they assume that we are naive enough to accept
such token shows of "solidarity" that are solely intended to cover up
grave acts of collusion in whitewashing Israel‘s crimes. Those
sincerely interested in defending Palestinian rights and taking a moral
and courageous stance against the Israeli occupation and apartheid
should not play Israel, period.
