Women in Black -LA
Join Local Peace and Human Rights Groups at Silent Candlelight Vigils Outside the Israel Philharmonic Concerts at Disney Hall
Monday, Feb. 5th, & Tuesday, Feb. 6th in Downtown LA
Women in Black-LA Join Launch of International Campaign Calling for Sanctions and Cultural Boycott to End Israeli Apartheid in Palestine
Inspired by Worldwide Movement That Helped End Apartheid in South Africa
WHAT: Silent Candlelight Vigil to Support a Boycott of the Israel Philharmonic and an End to Israeli Apartheid in Palestine
WHEN: Monday, February 5th - 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Tuesday, February 6th - 6:30 to 8:00 PM
WHERE: Outside the Disney Hall
1st Street & Grand, Downtown LA
WHY: International and Palestinian human rights leaders have asked supporters worldwide to begin cultural and economic boycotts, along with divestment and sanction campaigns to end Israel\\\\\\\\'s Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem and to end Israeli Apartheid in Palestine.
This effort is modeled after the successful worldwide boycott and divestment campaign that helped end Apartheid in South Africa.
When they learned that the Israel Philharmonic would be stopping at Disney Hall while on their U.S. tour, Women in Black-LA joined the international campaign by launching their call for a Boycott of the orchestra, after first writing a letter to the Israel Philharmonic asking them to publicly oppose the occuptation.
Nearly 1,000 groups and prominent individuals, from former government officials to artists and activists, all over the world, signed the letter.
One of the signers, Silvia Tennebaum, step-daughter of Israel Philharmonic co-founder, William Steinberg, wrote: \\\\\\\\"My hope is that the orchestra will remember the suffering endured by the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe and, in their memory, not implicitly support an occupation that seeks to strangle and displace a whole people.\\\\\\\\"
EXCERPT from letter to the Israel Philharmonic from WIB-LA:
\\\\\\\\"Imagine that the Israel Philharmonic\\\\\\\\'s denouncement of the Occupation and call for peace and justice will have a huge positive ripple effect on Israeli society. Imagine a future where Israelis and Palestinians share the resources of their land with respect and appreciation for each other\\\\\\\\'s humanity, cultures and needs. Maybe it\\\\\\\\'s the artists and musicians who will finally bring peaceand justice to Israel, Palestine and the region.\\\\\\\\"
“When we didn\\\\\\\\'t hear from the Israel Philharmonic,” said Carol Smith, a member of WIB-LA and the National Lawyers\\\\\\\\' Guild Los Angeles Chapter. “We wrote to the management of the L.A. Philharmonic asking them to cancel the performance or make an announcement before each performance, calling for an end to the occupation.”
\\\\\\\\"Now we are taking our protest to the audience at Disney Hall. Cultural and sports boycotts were a crucial part of the worldwide campaign that finally ended Apartheid in South Africa, and we call for a similar boycott to end Israeli Apartheid.\\\\\\\\"
\\\\\\\\"President Carter made it possible for us to go public with the comparison to Apartheid,\\\\\\\\" said WIB-LA member Greta Berlin. \\\\\\\\"Many of us worked in the anti-Apartheid movement and know how effective the cultural and sports boycotts were.”
“We felt that because Zubin Mehta, the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, refers to it as ‘Israel\\\\\\\\'s flagship,’ the orchestra serves as a representative of Israel\\\\\\\\'s government and policies. On its website (www.ipo.co.il), the Orchestra talks about its role in playing for Israel\\\\\\\\'s soldiers in the field and in celebrating Israel\\\\\\\\'s military victories.“
President Carter writes in his new best-selling book, Palestine, Peace, Not Apartheid,
\\\\\\\\"Israel\\\\\\\\'s current policy in the territories is a system of Apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israel totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. Israel\\\\\\\\'s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land.\\\\\\\\"
WHO: Women in Black is an international movement against violence and for justice. It was founded in Israel in 1988 to oppose the Israeli Occupation.
Women in Black-Los Angeles, founded in 2001, is made up of women and men from diverse faiths and national origins including Palestinians, Israelis and Americans, Jews, Muslims and Christians.
A number of members have made multiple visits to the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Please find a copy Women in Black-Los Angeles\\\\\\\\' letters to the Israel Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras below and on the website more information and photos: http://www.wib-la.org.
Also find below Los Angeles Times 1/27/07 article:
The Music Center area becomes a protest site
Groups intend to voice concerns, timed to appearances there by Mexico\\\\\\\\'s Vicente Fox and Israel Philharmonic.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-protest27jan27,1,7420749.story
The vigils are endorsed by the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (CEIA), and Middle East Peace Fellowship of Southern California.
********************
Women in Black-Los Angeles
October 30, 2006
Mr. Avi Shoshani
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
1 Huberman Street
Tel Aviv, Israel
Dear members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra:
It is with great respect for classical music in general, and for the music of the Israel Philharmonic in particular that we, members of Women in Black, Los Angeles are writing you this letter. Some of us are Israelis now living in the US. We grew up attending concerts of the orchestra, and remember the experience with so much joy. We have the deepest appreciation for artists, musicians in this instance, and see you as being on the leading edge of Israeli society and as powerful opinion leaders in your communities.
Learning that the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing next February at the prestigious Disney Hall in Los Angeles, following other concerts in New York and San Francisco, we are inspired to ask you this:
*
Are you willing to take a public stand to denounce the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza?
*
Will you call for an end to Occupation as a first step toward a viable peace, and for honest negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders?
We are not just speaking from far away. Some of us have been in Israel /Palestine over the past few years. We have witnessed the Apartheid Wall, the checkpoints, and the daily humiliation and violence an entire population of Palestinians has endured for nearly forty years. Like many in Israel and the global community, we feel that this occupation must end. And like many other groups in the United States and in Los Angeles, we hope that, as representatives of the State of Israel, you will take a public stand on this issue.
The Occupation is damaging both Palestinians and Israelis, with so much suffering on both sides. Former US President, Jimmy Carter, has recently written a book “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid” due for release November 14. In his summary Carter writes: “Israel’s current policy in the territories is a system of Apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land.”
Imagine that the Israel Philharmonic’s denouncement of the Occupation and call for peace and justice will have a huge positive ripple effect on Israeli society. Imagine a future where Israelis and Palestinians share the resources of their land with respect and appreciation for each other’s humanity, cultures and needs.
Maybe it’s the artists and musicians who will finally bring peace and justice to Israel, Palestine and the region. We hope you will distribute the letter to the members of your orchestra, and look forward to hearing from you by November 25, 2006 regarding your stand against the Occupation.
Please email your comments to us at WomeninBlackLA@gmail.com. Thank you.
Peace and blessings,
Elana Golden, Mary Hughes
For Women in Black, Los Angeles
CC: Zubin Mehta, Conductor; Ilia Konovalov, Concertmaster; Elyakum Salzman, Second Violin; Miriam Hartman, Viola; Michael Haran, Cello; Teddy Kling, Bass; Yossi Arnheim, Flute; Bruce Weinstein, Oboe; Ron Selka, Clarinet
*********
Women in Black-Los Angeles
December 21, 2006
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Music Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Deborah Borda, President
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
151 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Dear Deborah Borda, President and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director:
We, Women in Black-Los Angeles, request that the Music Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic cancel the performances of the Israel Philharmonic on February 5 and 6, 2007. If you can’t cancel the performances, at least, call for an end to the Occupation of Palestine at the beginning of each performance, as a first step toward a viable peace.
This bold action will identify you as a vitally important Los Angeles cultural institution that highly values human rights that will not give moral support to, or tolerate national states that engage in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is such a rogue state.
Because the Israel Philharmonic is performing at the Music Center, you have an opportunity to become part of the international campaign that advocates peace in the Middle East through nonviolent boycotts, divestment and sanctions of the representatives of Israel. A similar campaign against South Africa was successful in defeating Apartheid.
Israel uses the Israel Philharmonic, its cultural “ambassadors/representatives,” as part of a campaign to counteract Israel\\\\\\\\'s international image as a state whose government kills innocent civilians and commits war crimes against an occupied population. Because the Israeli government subsidizes the Philharmonic, this cultural icon has become a tacit collaborator.
In October, we wrote to the Israel Philharmonic and asked that the musicians take a public stand against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza and call for an end to Occupation. More than 800 people worldwide endorsed that letter, as well as thirty-five groups, including many Jewish and Israeli peace organizations. Renowned academics, artists, musicians, human rights activists, the clergy, and politicians asked to be included. We asked for an answer by November 25.
To date, there has been absolutely no response. The letter is one of the attachments we are enclosing in this plea to you.
If the Israel Philharmonic had spoken out against the Occupation, we would have celebrated them as part of the Israeli civil society’s criticism of the abominable acts of their government. Since they didn’t, we are asking you to cancel their performances.
Cultural institutions as well as individual artists, sports stars, corporations and many other institutions were strong supporters of the boycott of South Africa. We, in Los Angeles, should not host the Philharmonic. To do so makes all in Los Angeles who do not speak out and who actively host an agent of the state of Israel, accomplices to Israeli war crimes.
Silvia Tennenbaum, one of the endorsers of our letter, has given us permission to include her comments.“ My stepfather, William Steinberg was one of the founders, with the violinist Bronislaw Hubermann of what was then (in 1936) the Palestine Symphony. We came to the US, A when he was sponsored by Arturo Toscanin, who had conducted the first concert of the newborn orchestra. Toscanini was an anti-fascist through and through. My hope is that the orchestra, though far distant now, in time and personnel, from that which arrived in 1936 will remember the suffering endured by the Jews in Germany and throughout Eastern Europe, and in their memory, not support an occupation that seeks to strangle and displace a whole people. Jews know such suffering only too well-they must no inflict it on others.”
The worldwide documentation of Israel’s repression and crimes is clear. (See our attachment “Factual Summary of Israel’s Crimes.”) Everyone in the world community acknowledges the illegality of this longest occupation in modern history and calls for it to end. It is only Israel and its US ally that mislead the American public about the true nature of the everyday violence committed by Israel. The international community believes that all have a duty to actively oppose a state that engages in crimes against humanity, and it was the boycott and divestment movement that helped South Africans end apartheid. Unfortunately, the governments of Israel and the United States were the last to join the divestment strategies against South Africa. The parallels to the treatment of Palestinians are ominously similar.
President Jimmy Carter when describing the enormous imprisonment wall, stated that it “snake(s) through what is left of Palestine, to encompass more and more land for Israeli settlers” and is “in many ways more oppressive than what black people lived under in South Africa during apartheid.”
We close this letter by referencing the findings of the prominent investigator, John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In his 2004 report, when describing the Israeli killings of and destruction of Palestinians homes in a 19-day period, he stated that:
These actions constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the Geneva Convention relative of the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, (Fourth Geneva Convention, August 12 1949.) The acts amount to collective punishment, which violated both humanitarian and humanitarian law and international human rights law. It is impossible to accept the Israeli argument that these actions are justified by military necessity, but they are carried out “unlawfully and wantonly” in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
He reminded the Security Council and its Permanent Members of its obligations to insure peace and security in the region and believed that an arms embargo would be an appropriate measure He referenced the tendency of some Member States of the security council to use its veto in all actions effecting Israel, and that they repeat the behavior of Permanent Members in respect of South Africa before 1977.
In December 2006, Special Rapportuer Dugard again wrote:
“The United Nations for nearly 40 years has condemned Israel’s military occupation, together with colonialism and apartheid, as contrary to the international public order. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid.
The West Bank has been fragmented into (many areas) which resemble the Bantustans of South Africa. Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond apartheid’s “pass system.”
Many aspects of Israel’s occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians for exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. The Security Council is prevented from taking action because of the U. S. veto and the European Union abstinence. Forgotten is the commitment to putting an end to occupation, colonization and apartheid.”
Today, all of us have an obligation to put a stop to this Occupation. Our governments may only respond to the concerted actions of its citizenry, so we must speak in defense of justice and human rights. We ask that you distribute this letter to the members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and reply to us regarding your decision by January 10, 2007. We will be circulating this letter and attachments.
Sincerely,
Carol Smith, for
Women in Black, Los Angeles
**************
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-
protest27jan27,1,7420749.story
The Music Center area becomes a protest site
Groups intend to voice concerns, timed to appearances there by Mexico\\\\\\\\'s Vicente Fox and Israel Philharmonic.
By Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 27, 2007
Passions over international human rights issues have given rise to an unusual sight outside the Los Angeles Music Center: political protests.
While protests are a sporadic element of life in Los Angeles, these demonstrations stand out because of their location — in the heart of L.A.\\\\\\\\'s cultural center, where political dissent is usually channeled through works of art, not street protests.
Two Los Angeles-area groups are planning protests against a talk by former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Monday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and two performances in early February by the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall.
A Los Angeles affiliate of the international Women in Black organization held one demonstration outside Disney Hall on Jan. 14 and plans a second one for 1 p.m. Sunday before the scheduled 2 p.m. L.A. Philharmonic performance of Schumann\\\\\\\\'s Second Symphony. Other protests will coincide with the Israel Philharmonic\\\\\\\\'s scheduled concerts Feb. 5 and 6.
Monday\\\\\\\\'s planned protest against the Fox visit is being coordinated by the Organization of the Binational Indigenous Front, which organizer Odilia Romero said represents Native Americans on both sides of the border. The group also demonstrated Jan. 14 across the street from the center.
Romero said the group\\\\\\\\'s members were outraged by the center\\\\\\\\'s description of Fox, who left office in November after six years, as a promoter of Mexican democracy who helped stabilize an unruly economy.
\\\\\\\\"There were assassinations, political prisoners, migration for indigenous people\\\\\\\\" during Fox\\\\\\\\'s presidency, Romero said. \\\\\\\\"I don\\\\\\\\'t think he has stabilized the economy. The people are more in poverty than ever. We want our voices to be heard because we are the product of migration.\\\\\\\\"
Why protest at the Music Center in the first place? For pretty much the same reason Willie Sutton once said he robbed banks: That\\\\\\\\'s where the money is.
\\\\\\\\"It\\\\\\\\'s not about the program itself,\\\\\\\\" said Carol Smith, a leader of the Women in Black-L.A. group, whose demonstrations consist of more than a
dozen black-clad women standing silent vigil while handing out informational pamphlets. \\\\\\\\"It\\\\\\\\'s about educating the people who attend
the symphony.\\\\\\\\"
The group earlier had petitioned the L.A. Philharmonic to cancel the concert as part of its attempt to bring international pressure on Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians, including its occupation of Gaza. Israel has long maintained that its policies are
driven by self-defense concerns.
WIB-LA is part of a broad campaign seeking to bring the same international mix of sanctions and cultural boycotts on the Israeli government as arose in the 1980s against the former apartheid
government of South Africa.
In a letter to WIB-LA, Deborah Borda, president of the L.A. Philharmonic Assn., rejected calls for a boycott of the Israeli orchestra.
\\\\\\\\"We will never support the silencing of artists from any culture as a means of political action,\\\\\\\\" Borda wrote. \\\\\\\\"Whenever this unfortunate course of action has been pursued by governments and political entities, it is always to the detriment of society at large, and
certainly the artists.\\\\\\\\"
\\\\\\\\"The protests have been peaceful, and they are certainly welcome to express their opinions,\\\\\\\\" said Philharmonic spokesman Adam Crane.
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