We are London residents and supporters of justice and peace.



We call on The Roundhouse, Cadogan Hall and the Coronet Theatre to cancel all scheduled events of the Israeli government-sponsored festival TLV in LDN.



‘Brand Israel’ is an explicit policy of whitewashing crimes against Palestinians through cultural means. As Israeli foreign ministry official Arye Mekel explained in 2009:



“We will send well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, exhibits. This way, you show Israel’s prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war.”



The brutal reality to which Israel subjects Palestinians, of military occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism, is what TLV in LDN aims to mask, showing instead “Israel’s prettier face”.



Israel’s illegal settlements continue to expand on occupied Palestinian territory and the siege of Gaza has rendered the coastal strip “unliveable”, according to the UN.



Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are subject to scores of discriminatory laws, and Israel’s programme of ethnic cleansing continues across historic Palestine: a regime of apartheid and settler-colonialism that has denied generations of Palestinians their fundamental rights.



The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on the state of Israel until it abides by international law includes a cultural boycott of Israel.



As citizens of conscience we are responding to this call.



We say ‘Brand Israel’ is not welcome in London.



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Notes



TLV in LDN, scheduled for 8th-11th September 2017



More information on ‘Brand Israel’ (via Artists for Palestine UK)



UN report on Gaza, July 2017



Palestinian-led BDS movement



Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel guidelines

LDN Against Apartheid