Sydney Festival upended by BDS campaign

Artists and companies continue to drop out of the Sydney Festival over its sponsorship deal with the Israeli government. The annual festival is a major arts event in the city attracting approximately 500,000 visitors a year. According to BDS Australia, 100 individuals and organizations have withdrawn, disrupting more than 40% of the scheduled events.

“The actions of so many artists, companies and arts workers in supporting the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions in light of Israel’s apartheid policies and ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians, clearly shows the solidarity and intersectional nature of this struggle,” said BDS Australia patron and Sydney University professor Jake Lynch in a statement.

The boycott efforts were sparked by a $20,000 deal to stage a production of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Decadance. Israel’s government says that it was asked to contribute the money by a member of the festival’s management team.

According to the Palestinian Justice Movement Sydney, the sponsorship deal was negotiated last May while Israel was launching an air assault against Gaza that ultimately killed 256 Palestinians.

“They told us about it … and we were happy and honored to support it,” Deputy Ambassador of Israel to Australia Ron Gerstenfeld told ABC radio last week. “We didn’t think about it twice … and there were no strings attached. We didn’t ask any promises from [the festival] or the dance company to do something, we didn’t intervene in anything, so it’s a bit of hypocrisy to say we are doing some sort of art-wash in order to hide some kind of Israeli activities in any other sphere.”

Gerstenfeld also referred to the boycotters as “agents of chaos.”

The Guardian has reported on a December correspondence between festival board chairperson David Kirk and organizations pressuring the festival to sever its relationship with Israel. Kirk told the groups that the $20,000 would not just be used to put on a performance, but to hold a a Q&A event at the Sydney Opera House hosted by the Israeli embassy.

The Meanjin Quarterly, an Australian literary journal, published an open letter from group of writers and artists condemning the festivals partnership with Israel. “While Palestinians are intimately familiar with the rhetorical shields and strategies deployed by so-called progressives to ignore, deflect, block and even censor Palestine and its supporters, Sydney Festival’s insistence on crossing the picket line despite hearing directly from Palestinian artists and activists—including artists whose works were programmed in the Festival—is particularly disgraceful,” it reads.

Another open letter, signed by over 70 Jewish individuals and organizations, accuses the festival of “artwashing”–using art as a tool to justify Israeli apartheid. “We Jews are eager, honored, and humbled to stand alongside our Palestinian siblings and echo their calls. We refuse to be complicit in Israel’s actions. We stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians,” it declares.

Organizers of the festival have addressed the boycott call, but they haven’t backed down on the issue. “We see it as the core role of the Sydney Festival to present art and to provide an inclusive platform for all artists,” said its board in a statement. “We aim to profile a diverse representation of work by artists and companies locally, nationally and internationally. We respect the right of any artist to withdraw from the Festival and hope that they will feel able to participate in future festivals.”

Journalist and boycott leader Jennine Khalik reacted to the statement on Twitter. “This is not about some dance,” she tweeted. “We couldn’t care less, it’s about the money. Get the money elsewhere. Don’t accept Israeli apartheid regime money. Don’t make apartheid your ‘star’.”

One of the groups who endorsed the boycott was the production team of Chewing Gum Dreams, a play written by Michaela Coel. Coel is the creator, star, and co-director of the critically-acclaimed HBO series I May Destroy You.

“The Chewing Gum Dreams company will be withdrawing the show from the Festival in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” said the team in a statement shared on Instagram. “To the Palestinian community we say: We see you. We hear you. We are with you.”

The pro-Israel organization StandWithUs has circulated its own petition, thanking the Sydney Festival for refusing to budge on the sponsorship deal. “We commend the Sydney Festival organizers for standing firm and sending a clear message that boycotts of any kind are not welcome!,” it reads. “Thank you for standing against hate!”

Creative Community for Peace, a front group for StandWithUs, also produced an open letter condemning the boycott. It’s been signed by over 100 people, including KISS’ Gene Simmons and the Israeli-American megadonor Haim Saban. The letter includes a quote from Australian musician Nick Cave on the BDS movement: “The cultural boycott of Israel is cowardly and shameful. Israel is a real, vibrant, functioning democracy – yes, with Arab members of parliament – and so engaging with Israelis, who vote, may be more helpful than scaring off artists or shutting down means of engagement.”

The Sydney Festival began on January 6 and will run through the end of the month.