Itai Erdal rejects jamie griffiths-initiated boycott of Batsheva dancers
Vancouver lighting designer Itai Erdal sent an e-mail to several people today objecting to video artist jamie griffiths's attempt to promote a boycott of the Batsheva dance company because of Israeli government policies in the Middle East. Here is an edited version of the e-mail:
Dear Jamie,
As someone who knows this conflict really well, and as a member of the Vancouver arts community, I feel that I have to reply to your message.
I will never defend the actions of the state of Israel. One of the main reasons I left Israel was my unwillingness to live in a country that has seemed to have lost its moral compass.
I never objected boycotting Israel as an attempt to put pressure on the state of Israel, but I strongly disagree with this call to boycott the Batsheva dance company. If you want to boycott Israel, then don't buy Israeli wine, but don't hurt the artists.
Many of the artists in Israel are part of the sane minority that is horrified with what's happening in Palestine. The only way to end this conflict is to develop a strong left in Israel. Do you really think the right wing cares about dancers?
Boycotting Batsheva will only hurt dancers, designers and choreographers; it will not effect the state of Israel in any way.
As for the argument that this tour is part of the 60 year celebration and that Batsheva is an ambassador of Israel--you all know how hard it is to get funding as an artist in Canada.
Let me assure you that in a country that spends about 50 percent of its total budget on the military--it is a lot harder.
If you were a choreographer in Israel and the way to get money to do your art would be connecting yourself with the 60-year celebration of your country, wouldn't you do the same?
How many artists in Vancouver are receiving money from the Olympic committee (very different, I know, but still) when they actually believe that health care and homelessness are far better ways of spending money?
How many dancers in the Batsheva company feel exactly the same as me but can't leave? They have to live in Israel and they just want to dance; do you really think that making them dance in front of a half-empty house will help even one child in Gaza?
This is a very complicated situation. I think most people agree that Israel is committing crimes and something has to be done about that. I just don't think this is the thing to do. Can't we leave the artists out of it?
Itai
Itai Erdal Lighting Design
Comments
3 Comments
nigelparry
Feb 17, 2009 at 9:09pm
Like Apartheid South Africa, Israel’s legal system contains references to “Jews” and “Non Jews” that afford lesser rights to non-Jewish ethnic groups. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law bars Israelis who are married to Palestinians from the occupied territories from living with their spouses in Israel. Palestinian political participation inside Israel is conditional upon the acceptance of the Jewish exclusivity of the State.
Since 1967, Israel has expropriated about 79% of the West Bank and Gaza for “Jewish only” use. Palestinians inside both Israel and the occupied territories suffer from discrimination in every aspect of life, including in municipal budgets for Palestinians inside Israel, to basic necessities for life such as water and electricity.
Nonetheless, Batsheva Dance Company is “proud to be an ambassador for Israel”.
Itai Erdal basically implores us to ignore the alignment of Batsheva with multiple levels of the Israeli government, from the funding it receives, to its participation in the official 60th year celebration of driving the Palestinians out the country, to the fact that it is the Israeli Consulate in Chicago heavily promoting the Batsheva tour.
The same Israeli Consulate arranged a recent spread in MAXIM magazine presented images of scantily-clad Israeli soldiers under the banner headline “They’re drop-dead gorgeous and can strip an Uzi in seconds. Are the women of the Israeli Defense Forces the world’s sexiest soldiers?”
The State of Israel uses art to improve its international image and collaborating with that dynamic is morally unacceptable.
Israel does this at so many levels that it is important to confront it. As reported in the online edition of the New York Times of January 6th, the Israeli Defense Forces website offers multiple images of sexualized female soldiers that look like they could be “torn from the pages of a fashion magazine.”
In a statement the magazine said: "Maxim was approached by the Israeli consulate to be a part of reshaping Israel's public image, specifically because of our unmatched mainstream reach to men aged 18 to 35. We are pleased with the result of our work together."
Over 1,300 Palestinian men, women, and children were killed during the December 2008—January 2009 Israeli attack on Gaza. Over 5,000 more Palestinians were injured, including many who lost limbs or who are paralyzed as the result of shrapnel in their spines.
Gaza’s civilian infrastructure was heavily targeted in defiance of international law, and American-supplied M825A1 phosphorus shells were used by Israel against Palestinian civilians and a United Nations school.
A delegation sent to Gaza by the National Lawyers Guild reported “strong indications of violations of the laws of war, U.S. law, and war crimes”. Amnesty International researchers who visited both Gaza and southern Israel during the fighting and in its immediate aftermath, found “compelling evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
Has Itai Erdal never heard of Leni Riefenstahl? She was the German film maker that shot "Triumph of the Will", among other Nazi propaganda films. I bet Erdal has had many a conversation with friends about how inappropriate her work was *as an artist* due to the *propaganda* effect of it.
It doesn't matter if the company members vote Labor or Likud or want peace or not. It doesn't matter at all because Batsheva is being exploited as lip gloss for a fascist state.
Apartheid fell in South Africa largely because of a sustained, powerful international boycott campaign. Yet Erdal wants us to be quiet and leave the artists alone. He may not care about the next 1,300 dead Palestinians but the rest of us are morally compelled to utilize every peaceful means of bringing pressure to bear on an Israel that is not listening to calls for justice or even basic human decency.
For more information on why a cultural boycott is important and necessary, please visit the websites of http://usacbi.wordpress.com or http://www.pacbi.org
jbm
Feb 18, 2009 at 12:39pm
The actions of governments are smeared across every headline, and broadcast in almost-real-time across the internet, radio, and television, on a continuous basis. It is far too easy for us to have some idea what governments are up to. But understanding what the people living under those governments are up to is a much more difficult and subtle thing. And that's one of the roles that the arts can fulfil. Probably the least effective way to understand the inner workings of a culture is to watch the news, but arguably the best way is to give some time and attention to its artists. We can't afford to ignore the world's artists, whatever their governments may be up to. I can't support what the Israeli government is doing, but I do want to know what its artists are doing, thinking, making, imagining.
As an artist myself I'm frequently embarrassed by the actions of our federal and/or provincial governments - just look at what happened to arts funding this week? It's pathetic. It's even pathetic on the most fundamental political level of responding to the economic crisis. Laughable, really, if it weren't so deeply and depressingly idiotic. Anyone who tried to suggest that "my government" (big, big quotes) is somehow acting in my best interests, or, looking at it the other way, that I support the government in these decisions, would be seriously mistaken.
I can't think of a country or nation today in which the artists represent anything other than a marginalized community. We need to hear what that community is saying. It may be the only way of getting anywhere near the "truth" in our up-to-the-minute quasi-news culture. Perhaps it sounds fanciful, or extreme, to those smitten with the representations clogging our news media channels, but I honestly don't think we can afford to ignore the artists at a time like this...
JLG
Feb 18, 2009 at 2:51pm
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3671264,00.html
Boycott of Batsheva is happening throughout North American tour. This Israeli news link contains interesting information on the funding of the Batsheva tour. The tour itself seems to be organized by the Israeli Consulate in Chicago. So much for non-partisan artists being unfairly boycotted...?