Open letter to the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, November 09
Dear Director of Music, Timothy Brown and members of the choir,
We understand that you intend to tour Israel with the Choir of Clare College to perform J.S. Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ between 25th and 30th December this year and we are asking you to reconsider this decision.
Artists and musicians in Palestine, inspired by the example of the campaign which brought an end to apartheid in South Africa, have asked people of conscience around the world not to perform in Israel as an act of solidarity with them. They do not do this lightly, but because over forty years of talking have brought no meaningful results in the implementation of international law and humanitarian law to help Palestinians achieve an independent sovereign state.
December 27 will be the anniversary of the terrible day last year that Israel unleashed a military onslaught on the trapped population of the Gaza Strip. While the rest of the world will be remembering the massacre of 1,400 Palestinian people, your choir will be performing in the capital city of the government which perpetrated acts now regarded as war crimes, according to the latest UN report from Judge Richard Goldstone.
Your invitation to perform in Israel is from the Israel Camerata, a body partially funded by the Israeli government. To accept such an invitation is to ignore the fact that Israel is currently engaged in the longest ever occupation of a people, an occupation declared illegal by the United Nations. You will see nothing of the reality of life under occupation for the Palestinian people of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The Gaza tragedy was merely the latest episode in the catastrophe which has befallen the people of Palestine since the destruction of their villages and the creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees at the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. The town of Karmiel, where you are due to perform on December 30th, is built on land expropriated from the Palestinian villages of Deir al-Asad, Bi’ina and Nahf.
The fact that you have been invited to participate in the traditional Christmas Eve carol service in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem only emphasises the publicity value to the Israeli government of this trip. Many Palestinian Christians are denied the right to attend this service by the Israeli government and army.
To go ahead with this tour could appear indifferent to Palestinian suffering.
Music brings a message of hope but in this instance it will be seen by the Palestinian people as an endorsement of Israeli occupation. We ask you again to reconsider your decision.
Signed, (all in personal capacities):
Sir Geoffrey Bindman, lawyer
Victoria Brittain, journalist
Poppy Burton-Morgan, actor and director
Caryl Churchill, playwright
Jeremy Corbyn MP
William Dalrymple, writer
Raymond Deane, composer
Laurence Dreyfus, Oxford University
Thomas Eisner, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Nancy Elan, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Deborah Fink, soprano
Catherine Ford, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Danny Friedman, Barrister
Charles Fullbrook , Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Dr. David Halpin, Dove and Dolphin Charity
Prof. Manuel Hassassian, formerly of Bethlehem University
Samira Hassassian, formerly of Bethlehem University
Rev. Garth Hewitt, Canon of St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem
Betty Hunter, General Secretary of Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Leila Ingrams, author
Annemarie Jacir, Film maker from Bethlehem
Susan Carpenter - Jacobs
John Keane, artist
Reem Kelani, singer
Ellie Merton, Adhoc Humanitarians Orchestra
Susie Meszaros, Chilingirian String Quartet
Leon Rosselson, singer /songwriter
Paul Hughes-Smith, former arts and music producer, BBC TV
Ghada Karmi, writer and academic
Catherine Mackintosh
Miriam Margolyes, actor
Kika Markham, actor
Roy Mowatt, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Karma Nabulsi, Academic, Oxford
Maxine Peake, actor
Mattia Petrilli, Orchestra Mozart, Italy
Corin Redgrave, actor
Hilary Rose, academic
Steven Rose, academic
Revd. Yazeed Said
Dominic Saunders, pianist
Jan Schlapp, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Laila Shawa, artist
Ahdaf Soueif, writer
Sarah Streatfeild, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Thomas Suarez, New York Symphonic Ensemble
Rima Tarazi, musician and President of the Administrative Board of the General Union of
Palestinian Women
Baroness Jenny Tonge
Henrietta Wayne, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Samuel West, actor /director
Latest News
The RMT transport union has passed a motion condemning Israel at an international conference representing more than 4,600,000 union members.
Today, Thursday 29th July 2010, at 1pm, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) delivered a petition to Dunnes Stores signed by 6,000 shoppers across Ireland. The petition demands that Dunnes Stores stop stocking Israeli products, until Israel respects Palestinian rights and international law. Present at the handing-in were Brendan Archbold, the trade union official at the centre of the 1980s Dunnes strike when workers refused to handle South African goods, Freda Hughes IPSC National Chairperson, Aengus O'Snodaigh of Sinn Fein along with supporters of the campaign and members of both the Palestinian and South African communities in Ireland.