LDN Against Apartheid

LDN Against Apartheid is a grassroots campaign established to oppose the Israeli government propaganda festival TLV in LDN, in solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the call for the cultural boycott of Israel.

While claiming to be a celebration of culture, TLV in LDN was in fact an entirely political enterprise. Festival director Marc Worth said that the Israeli embassy in London asked him to organise the event as a response to the BDS movement and in particular the cultural boycott. The original idea came from former Mayor of London and current UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who proposed it to the Israeli embassy to “make amends” for the decision by the Tricycle Theatre in London to reject Israeli embassy funding for a film festival during Israel’s onslaught on Gaza in 2014. The theatre’s decision was later retracted under heavy pressure, including from UK government minister Sajid Javid who threatened to cut off the small theatre’s own funding, a move Javid explained was intended as a wider threat to other UK cultural institutions not to try “that kind of thing again”.

Three years later, and following endorsements from both London mayoral candidates in 2016, TLV in LDN was announced, with the majority of the programme at iconic north London venue The Roundhouse. That venue’s artistic director and chief executive Marcus Davey is a signatory to a 2015 open letter which condemns the cultural boycott of Israel. This letter was itself a direct response to the announcement earlier that year that hundreds of UK artists had signed a pledge to adhere to the cultural boycott of Israel. At the time of writing more than 1200 UK artists have signed the Artists for Palestine pledge.

Advertisements appeared at bus stops across the capital in the weeks leading up to TLV in LDN, calling for its cancellation. Artists including Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, film director Ken Loach, rap artist Lowkey, leading playwright Caryl Churchill, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth joined more than 1000 UK residents in urging festival venues to withdraw their participation. Conscientious Londoners took to the streets outside the Roundhouse to demonstrate their opposition to the cynical propaganda of an apartheid regime and to express solidarity with Palestinian civil society in their call for the cultural boycott of Israel.

The Palestinian BDS human rights movement works to end international support for Israel’s regime of oppression and has three clear aims: the end of Israel’s occupation of all Arab lands and the dismantling of the apartheid wall; equality for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship; and respecting the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. Israel’s attempts to counter the BDS movement and thus prevent the implementation of international law are led by Gilad Erdan and the strategic affairs ministry. Erdan’s ministry employs ‘black ops’ and ‘dirty tricks’ against human rights defenders in its efforts to challenge BDS.

At the private launch of the festival, director Marc Worth said from the stage of the Roundhouse that the involvement of the strategic affairs ministry had been crucial, adding that the festival’s steering committee was comprised of officials from that ministry as well as from Israel’s embassy in London. The artistic producer of the festival said that “without the support of minister Erdan we would not be here tonight”. Erdan himself explained from the stage why he wanted to “spearhead” the festival, but nothing could be more obvious.

Israel’s apartheid regime recognises that its increasing isolation in the cultural sphere represents a threat to the perpetuation of its colonial policies. They also understand the importance of art in relation to struggles against oppression. Erdan said at the Roundhouse that “the power of culture can unite or divide”. On this point he is right. Millions of people around the world are united in opposition to Israel’s occupation and systematic human rights violations, and are standing together, in solidarity with Palestinians.

The festival was open about its goal of showing those younger British people who know little of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians the state’s “prettier face”, in the hope they will be converted into vocal advocates for Israel’s settler-colonial project. Even on its own terms, this desperate strategy is doomed to failure, as increasing numbers of people around the world, including in the UK, become alert to Israel’s flagrant disregard for international law.

This particular failed effort is only a small part of a far wider attempt by the apartheid regime to counter the growing Palestinian BDS human rights movement, including through shameful attempts by many Western governments to criminalise support for BDS on Israel’s behalf, including by the UK government. LDN Against Apartheid are also aware that there are plans being made for a repeat of TLV in LDN. But if and when similar events are announced for London, or New York or wherever else, people of conscience around the world will firmly oppose such cynical propaganda, as long as Palestinians are denied their fundamental rights.

https://ldnagainstapartheid.tumblr.com/post/165259641889/no-to-brand-israel

Roger Waters performed with Pink Floyd at the Roundhouse's opening night in 1966.

This week he's among many artists calling for the boycott of Israel's propaganda festival .

Read more: https://ldnagainstapartheid.tumblr.com/post/165077895104/leading-artists-urge-tlvinldn-boycott

Writer and comedian Alexei Sayle, leading playwright Caryl Churchill and actor David Calder join hundreds of Londoners in calling for the boycott of propaganda festival TLV in LDN.

Read more: https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2017/09/06/artists-slam-israels-planned-occupation-of-londons-roundhouse/

Award-winning film director Ken Loach on TLV in LDN:

"The Roundhouse should have the guts to cancel this charade."



https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2017/09/06/artists-slam-israels-planned-occupation-of-londons-roundhouse/

Roger Waters, Lowkey & Thurston Moore call for the boycott of Israeli government art-washing festival ! Read more: https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2017/09/06/artists-slam-israels-planned-occupation-of-londons-roundhouse/

Watch: Human rights defenders block trucks full of Israeli military vehicles, on their way to the world's biggest arms fair, this morning in London.

We can't help note the irony as the Israeli embassy in London also gears up for its propaganda festival, starting in a couple of days. The festival director, Marc Worth, said in a recent interview that when people think of Israel they think of “tanks and bombs and bullets”, and that the festival's goal is to divert attention from that, by "educating the uninformed British public".

We say ‘Brand Israel’ is not welcome in London. We don't buy your tanks and we don't buy your propaganda!

If you can't be here to block the trucks, make sure to take these actions:
1- Support and share our Thunderclap https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/61475-cancel-israel-pr-fest-tlvinldn
2- Sign and share our petition https://www.change.org/p/cancel-tlv-in-ldn
3- Like our FB page and invite your friends https://www.facebook.com/LDNAgainstApartheid/
4- Follow us on Twitter, RT, or tweet your own with the hashtag https://twitter.com/ApartheidinLDN

Rainbow Collective on Twitter “Happening now with https://t.co/oaxSIViYgg”

Thanks to The London Latinxs for their support

**Statement from The London Latinxs in support of the Palestinian call for BOYCOTT against the Israeli government funded event: TLV in LDN. ** London Palestine Action

As a q***r/ LGBTQ migrant latinx collective that has performed in the Roundhouse before with spoken word we are disappointed to know that the Roundhouse and Coronet are hosting the TLV in LDN event this week.

TLV in LDN is being supported by the Israeli government which is deeply complicit in violations of international law with the oppression of Palestinians, including LGBTQI Palestinians living in occupied lands and treated as second class citizens in Israel.

Events like these cover up these violations because it erases the voices of Palestinian people and their right to live freely and with dignity. As asylum seekers and refugees from oppressive U.S funded governments and military dictatorships, we urge you to endorse the call for a boycott for democratic transformation. We stand in solidarity with the boycott of this Israeli government-backed event and join the call for the collective consciousness of the atrocities happening to Palestinians.

We hope that the Roundhouse /Coronet will not continue to sponsor government institutions who are complicit in crimes against humanity that use ‘art’ as a tool to pink-wash and whitewash violations of human rights and ongoing genocide to the Palestinian people.

The London Latinxs
[email protected]

Artist of design: Protest Stencil

LDN Against Apartheid is a grassroots campaign calling for the cancellation of TLV in LDN, in solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) human rights movement. TLV in LDN claims to be a celebration of culture but it is nothing of the sort. It is a blatant attempt by an apartheid regime to art-wash its crimes against Palestinians.

Festival director Marc Worth recently said that the Israeli embassy in London asked him to organise TLV in LDN as a response to the BDS movement and in particular the cultural boycott of Israel. Prominent war crimes apologist and Israeli ambassador Mark Regev has himself been promoting the festival and will attend the VIP opening night gala this Thursday night, along with the Mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, and Israeli government ministers.

TLV in LDN is part of ‘Brand Israel’, an overt policy of whitewashing human rights violations through cultural means, summed up by Israeli foreign ministry official Arye Mekel 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.”

Marc Worth said recently that when people think of Israel they think of “tanks and bombs and bullets”. He said that TLV in LDN aims to show “the uninformed British public” that “there’s a lot of good stuff” in Israel too. It is ironic then that the festival takes place in the same week that Israeli arms companies are setting up stall at the ExCel centre in London, selling weapons that are marketed as ‘field-tested’ - against Palestinians.

As the illegal siege of Gaza worsens, Israel’s colonisation and occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem becomes ever-more entrenched, and Palestinian refugees continue to be denied their right to return, it is unacceptable that The Roundhouse, with its legacy as a hub for radical expression, should now play host to the art-washing of an apartheid regime.

https://ldnagainstapartheid.tumblr.com/post/164947121139/celebrating-culture

In Israel some flags are cause for celebration, other flags are cause for a military attack.

Only 5 days until the Israeli embassy's TLV in LDN propaganda festival. Please join us in protest- sign and share this Thunderclap!

director Marc Worth recently said that Israel's embassy in London asked him to organise the festival as a response to the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. He also said "We've carefully chosen Roundhouse as our venue because it's pretty difficult to protest outside."

Israel's embassy and Worth hope to "show the uninformed British public" that Israel is not just "tanks & bombs & bullets" but that "there's a lot of good stuff as well", reiterating previous statements by the Israeli foreign ministry that it "sees culture as a Hasbara [public relations] tool of the first rank" and does "not differentiate between Hasbara and culture."

Israel's ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, the Mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai, and Israeli government ministers will attend the VIP opening gala of the festival at Roundhouse on Thursday 7th September.

So let's make our protest heard. Click the link and join the campaign!

Cancel Israel PR fest TLVinLDN I just supported Cancel Israel PR fest TLVinLDN on //

SIGN THE PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/cancel-tlv-in-ldn

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.

https://ldnagainstapartheid.tumblr.com/post/163901126549/cancel-tlv-in-ldn