A protest will take place today against the Israeli dance troupe Batsheva as part of the international BDS (Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions) campaign to isolate Israel and its apartheid policies towards Palestinians.
The protest will take place outside the St James Theatre in Courtenay Place, Wellington from 7.30pm.
The government has given visas to this dance company despite appeals from Palestinian solidarity groups and 2014 being
declared the United Nation’s “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”.
The Batsheva Dance Company is part of the Israeli propaganda effort to deflect criticism of its appalling policies
towards Palestinians. It is largely funded by the Israeli Ministry of Culture & Sport, the City of Tel Aviv and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs who praise the troupe as “ambassadors of
Israeli culture”.
The troupe's participation in the NZ Arts Festival is also partially sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Wellington.
The protest will be calling for an end to Israel’s unashamedly racist treatment of its Arab-Israeli citizens; the
construction of illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land; the brutal military occupation of the West Bank
Palestinian territory and the inhuman blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign was launched in 2005 by some 260 Palestinian civil society
organisations as the best way for the international community to support the Palestinian struggle for justice and human
rights.
While some may hide behind the excuse that art and culture is somehow apolitical, many (including Stephen Hawking, Emma
Thompson, Miriam Margolyes, Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel) are taking a stand.
For the same reasons New Zealanders called for the end to rugby links with apartheid South Africa we are calling for the
cutting of ties with apartheid Israel and a boycott of the Batsheva performances in New Zealand. This call is being made
by a combined network of Palestinian solidarity organisations in New Zealand.
The National Party was on the wrong side of history in the struggle against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and
seems determined to continue on the wrong side of this issue.
As University of Auckland Dance Studies Associate Professor Nicholas Rowe puts it:
‘If Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company would have the courage to refuse to offer their bodies up to the Israeli
Defense Forces for annual military service, if they would have the courage to publicly condemn the illegal military
occupation of the West Bank and the ongoing theft of land and property by the government that pays them to tour in the
name of Israel, if they would have the courage to publicly state that they do not judge people by their religion or
ethnicity and so would welcome the return of non-Jewish refugees back to their homes inside what is now Israel, then
they would be touring to New Zealand as dance artists, and not just as political puppets. Anybody who seeks to watch
Batsheva should be aware that Ohad Naharin and Batsheva have these choices to make. ‘ Dr Nicholas Rowe, Dance Studies,
University of Auckland
ENDS