Title: Skjuler Israel-konserter (engl.: Hiding Israel concerts)
Author: Thomas Espevik, Sara Hegna Hammer, Mari Brenna Vollan
Date: 2019-10-02
Aurora vil unngå oppmerksomhet om spillejobb i Israel – nevner ikke konsertene sin på egen nettside:
Skjuler Israel-konserter
Musikk / Thomas Espevik, Sara Hegna Hammer og Mari Brenna Vollan 2. oktober 2019
REISEKLAR: Aurora Aksnes blir kritisert for at hun har tatt to spillejobber i Israel, men uttaler til Klassekampen at hun ikke vil la noens politikk stoppe henne fra å «dra til mennesker og røre i dem». Bildet ble tatt i Bergen i sommer, i forbindelse med Musikkmagasinets intervju med artisten. FOTO: TOM HENNING BRATLIE
Manageren til Aurora innrømmer å ha forsøkt å dysse ned at hun skal spille to konserter i Tel Aviv. – Sinnssykt feigt, mener artistkollega Embla Karidotter.
Aurora Aksnes (23), som går under artistnavnet Aurora, har en travel høst foran seg. Ifølge en oversikt på artistens nettside skal hun spille rundt 30 konserter i inn- og utland de tre neste månedene.
[....]
The full text is not accessible (paywall). Maybe someone has possibilities to get the rest?
Translation (www.DeepL.com):
Aurora wants to avoid attention about her gig in Israel - does not mention her concerts on her own website:
Hiding Israel concerts
Music / Thomas Espevik, Sara Hegna Hammer and Mari Brenna Vollan 2. October 2019
TRAVELLING: Aurora Aksnes has been criticised for taking two gigs in Israel, but tells Klassekampen that she won't let anyone's politics stop her from "going to people and touching them". The photo was taken in Bergen this summer, in connection with Musikkmagasinet's interview with the artist. PHOTO: TOM HENNING BRATLIE
Aurora's manager admits to having tried to hush up the fact that she will be playing two concerts in Tel Aviv - "Insanely cowardly," says fellow artist Embla Karidotter.
Aurora Aksnes (23), who goes by the stage name Aurora, has a busy autumn ahead of her. According to an overview on the artist's website, she will be playing around 30 concerts at home and abroad over the next three months.
Palestina-saken får flere artister til å styre unna Israel
Lorde og Lana del Rey avlyste konserter i fjor
Musikere skyr kryssild
Musikk / Mari Brenna Vollan / 4. oktober 2019
MOT STRØMMEN: Det har vært færre konserter i Israel det siste året, mye på grunn av innsatsen til Palestina-aktivister, mener Itay Stern i avisa Haaretz. I november spiller Aurora i Tel Aviv.FOTO: TORSTEIN BØE, NTB SCANPIX Torstein Bøe
Artisten Aurora får massiv kritikk etter å ha forsøkt å skjule konserter i Tel Aviv. – Hvis du vil spille i Israel nå, må du virkelig ville det, sier kulturjournalist i Haaretz.
Det norske popfenomenet Aurora skal spille en lang rekke konserter i høst, blant annet i Tel Aviv. Men artisten opplyser ikke om Israel-besøket verken på nettsida si eller på sin offisielle Facebook-side, slik Klassekampen skrev onsdag.
[....]
The full text is not accessible (paywall). Maybe someone has possibilities to get the rest?
Translation (www.DeepL.com):
The Palestinian issue causes more artists to steer clear of Israel Lorde and Lana del Rey cancelled concerts last year
Musicians avoid crossfire
Music / Mari Brenna Vollan / 4. October 2019
AGAINST THE CURRENT: There have been fewer concerts in Israel over the past year, largely due to the efforts of Palestinian activists, according to Itay Stern in the newspaper Haaretz. In November, Aurora will play in Tel Aviv.
PHOTO: TORSTEIN BØE, NTB SCANPIX Torstein Bøe
The artist Aurora is being heavily criticised after trying to hide concerts in Tel Aviv - "If you want to play in Israel now, you must really want to," says a cultural journalist in Haaretz.
Norwegian pop phenomenon Aurora will play a large number of concerts this autumn, including in Tel Aviv. But the artist has not announced her visit to Israel on her website or on her official Facebook page, as Klassekampen wrote on Wednesday.
There were a lot of articles about this in Norwegian newspapers that time. I have read most of them, but I don't want to subscribe to copy the text. Not now. but may be later if there is a new article about Aurora. The Palestine Committee in Norway really hated her for her concerts. Specially in social media you found a lot of negative comments about her.
Attended AURORA shows 18/12/2015 Union Scene, Drammen, NO 14/12/2016 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO *** 18/12/2016 Union Scene, Drammen, NO 14/12/2017 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO *** 17/12/2017 Union Scene, Drammen, NO 22/03/2019 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO *** 15/12/2019 Union Scene, Drammen, NO 13/08/2022 Øyafestivalen, Oslo, NO *** 26/11/2022 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO 21/07/2023 Foynhagen, Tønsberg, NO *** 22/03/2024 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO
2019-11-11: 'Young London Palestine Solidarity Campaign - PSC' [link]
The message from AURORA fans at her London gig tonight was clear. Crossing the Palestinian picket line and playing apartheid Tel Aviv goes against your progressive values, and helps Israel use culture to whitewash its continued violations of international law. It's not too late Aurora - listen to your fans. Don't go.
2019-11-11: 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement' [link]
Tonight at the Roundhouse, fans asked Norwegian artist AURORA to join Lorde, Lana Del Rey and thousands of artists around the world in respecting the Palestinian call for the cultural boycott of Israel, by canceling her scheduled shows in apartheid Tel Aviv.
2019-11-19: 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement' [link]
Regardless of intentions, AURORA played straight into the hands of Israel’s far-right regime, which exploits all international performances to artwash its oppression against Palestinians.
There were a lot of articles about this in Norwegian newspapers that time. I have read most of them, but I don't want to subscribe to copy the text. Not now. but may be later if there is a new article about Aurora. The Palestine Committee in Norway really hated her for her concerts. Specially in social media you found a lot of negative comments about her.
I thought it might be interesting to document what was going on back in 2019 by adding the texts. If there is anything else that might be interesting from a historical perspective, then it certainly makes sense to post it here.
These two examples of her indirect and direct political engagement, back in 2019 supporting her fans in Israel and now supporting the suffering Palestinian civilians in Gaza, show very clearly that she always follows her heart and does not allow herself to be corrupted.
'Artists for Palestine UK': Two open letters from Palestinian and Israeli artists asking Aurora not to perform in Israel [link1] [link2]:
Title: Palestinian and Israeli Artists Urge Aurora: Don’t Play Israel! Date: 2019-10-04
Palestinian and Israeli Artists Urge Aurora: Don’t Play Israel!
October 4, 2019
Norwegian pop star Aurora is booked to play Tel Aviv on November 14th and 15th. Palestinian artists, and Israeli artists, have each launched appeals to the singer.
Artists for Palestine UK is pleased to host both letters below.
Palestinian artists to Aurora
Dear Aurora
It is with great regret we have become aware of your planned performance in Tel Aviv in November. You have quickly become one of the great new names in the international popular music scene, including among Palestinians and other Arabs. Regardless of your intentions, your decision to perform in Tel Aviv will be seen as endorsing Israel’s whitewash of its occupation and denial of human rights to Palestinians.
Israel is intensifying its decades-old regime of oppression against Palestinians, especially its theft of Palestinian land and resources to build more illegal settlements and apartheid walls. UN investigators have concluded that Israeli occupation forces’ intentional targeting of journalists, medics, children and disabled people with sniper fire in Gaza “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”. Moreover, Israel’s 12-year-old siege of Gaza has reduced it into an “unliveable” territory, according to the UN. Israel’s military occupation counts per-capita calories allowed into Gaza to keep the two million Palestinians there on the verge of starvation.
Given this reality, many celebrities, including Lana del Rey, Lorde and Natalie Portman, have cancelled scheduled events or performances in Israel. As during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, such expressions of solidarity by artists sends the right message that they will not lend their names to covering up Israel’s oppression and that they stand with the oppressed Palestinians, including artists, who are not allowed to travel freely to share our art and culture.
The people of Norway have been among the most supportive of Palestinian freedom. The LO Trade Unions Congress resolution of 2017 in support of our nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, for instance, was a very important international victory for us Palestinians. It mainstreamed boycott as a tool of Norwegian solidarity with the oppressed. And when more than 150 Norwegian artists endorsed the Palestinian, Israeli and international calls for boycott Eurovision in apartheid Tel Aviv in May this year, they demonstrated their moral commitment to do no harm to our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
You describe yourself as a “down to earth” personality, uncompromising and not to be pushed around by producers and the like. This sounds like somebody who would be inclined to side with the oppressed and downtrodden, as did Lana del Rey and Lorde, rather than siding with the oppressors and perpetrators of war crimes.
You may be approached by a group called “Creative Community for Peace” (CCFP), an Israel lobby group that presents itself as an “independent” entertainment industry organization trying to convince you why crossing the Palestinian nonviolent picket line to perform in Tel Aviv is good for your career and the “right” thing to do. CCFP carefully hides from artists that it is actually a front group for StandWithUs (SWU), a long-established right-wing, anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli settler lobby group with long-time ties to Israel’s far-right government.
We Palestinian artists appeal to you to stand with the thousands of artists worldwide who refuse to allow their art to art-wash Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid and thus to contribute to our peaceful struggle for freedom and rights.
Signed,
Shahd Abusalama, dancer
Raed Andoni, filmmaker
Nai Barghouti, singer
Nabil Bey, musician, songwriter
Samir Eskanda, musician
Adnan Joubran, musician, composer
Remi Kanazi, poet
Hannah Khalil, playwright
Ramzi Maqdisi, actor
Ahmed Masoud, author, playwright
Kareem Samara, musician
Israeli artists to Aurora
Dear Aurora,
We are Israeli artists, musicians, filmmakers, and authors, active for a just society here and for a better world. We respect and empathise deeply with your commitment to artistic independence and an artistic voice on pressing global issues. We would like to share our perspective on your planned concert in Israel.
We, as Jewish Israelis who yearn to live in a peaceful, democratic society, recognise that there is no way to achieve that without ending our government’s oppression of millions of Palestinians. A society can’t be considered democratic, if millions have no vote and no say in the regime that rules them. Such is the situation in Israel, where millions of Palestinians are under military siege and occupation.
Playing in Israel at this moment necessarily means making a political statement. On one hand, it would be wonderful to hear your message calling to action around pressing global issues. On the other, this message will be delivered in Tel Aviv, which Israel uses as means of public relations, to distract from its military occupation, apartheid policies, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people.
In Tel-Aviv itself Israel displaces the Palestinians of Jafa, vis-a-vis the Tel-Aviv-Jafa municipality, using economic and legalistic means, evicting families, demolishing homes, and neglecting and defunding whole neighbourhoods, in a process of gentrification that favours Jewish-Israelis over Palestinians.
We, as artists, can’t sit silent as our Palestinian counterparts suffer silencing, dehumanisation and violence, and we ask you to join us in speaking out. Palestinian artists have asked you to cancel your concert, and we strengthen their call.
Respectfully,
Meira Asher, sound and radio artist, educator
Ohal Grietzer, composer, mixed-media performer
Avi Hershkovitz, filmmaker
Jonathan Ofir, conductor
David Oppenheim, artist, musician
Timna Perets, filmmaker
Danielle Ravitzki, artist
Ben Ronen, visual artist
Itamar Shapira, musician
Yonatan Shapira, musician
Professor Eyal Sivan, filmmaker, Amsterdam University of the Arts (AhK)
Hamutal Song, author, artist, journalist
Karen Zack, photographer
Title: Aurora: Don’t be a sword, cancel Tel Aviv
Author: Samir Eskanda, Ohal Grietzer
Date: 2019-11-14
Aurora: Don’t be a sword, cancel Tel Aviv
November 14, 2019
Aurora says she is a lily, not a sword. As Palestinian and Israeli musicians, we urge her to be true to her word, by refusing to let her music and image be exploited as a weapon of propaganda by the far-right Israeli apartheid regime. Israel explicitly uses all international artists to cover up oppression, particularly those who consciously dismiss moral appeals for them to refuse shows at complicit Israeli cultural institutions.
Barby Club in Tel Aviv, where Aurora is booked to perform two shows in November, is one such cultural institution. Barby brazenly wears its complicity like a badge of honour, most clearly when it handed out free t-shirts to Israeli occupation forces engaged in the 2014 massacres in Gaza that left more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 500 children, dead.
These t-shirts were emblazoned with the phrase “fu ck you, we’re from Israel” alongside the club’s own logo, who proudly posted images online. This incident alone should be enough to stir the conscience of any progressive artist, especially Aurora’s, whose own sense of morality is surely troubled by such a glaring example of a hyper-militarised society meshing seamlessly with culture, as it does in apartheid Tel Aviv today.
We are among the Palestinian and Israeli artists who wrote open letters to Aurora, calling on her to cancel her shows in apartheid Tel Aviv. Palestinian artists wrote that “when more than 150 Norwegian artists endorsed the Palestinian, Israeli and international calls to boycott Eurovision in apartheid Tel Aviv in May this year, they demonstrated their moral commitment to do no harm to our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.” Meanwhile, Israelis wrote that, as artists, they “can’t sit silent” as long as their “Palestinian counterparts suffer silencing, dehumanisation and violence”.
Another letter to Aurora was sent from Boycott from Within, whose public support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is now endorsed by a thousand Israeli citizens, mostly Jewish. They drew Aurora’s attention to the fact that last year’s so-called Jewish Nation-State Law “enshrines apartheid into Israel’s equivalent of a constitution”. This entrechment of apartheid was only the latest: Palestinian citizens of Israel were already subject to 65 racist laws.
As in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the refusal of progressive artists to play Sun City, artists today are asked to do no harm to the nonviolent struggle of Palestinians, by refusing to perform in apartheid Tel Aviv. The growing solidarity between global grassroots movements and Palestinians, including LGBTQ+ organisations, feminist movements, Black liberation, and climate justice struggles, is best encapsulated by Angela Davis’s immortal statement that justice is indivisible.
We do not doubt that Aurora has good intentions. That much is clear from her various statements. The world we live in is often brutally indifferent to suffering, but people are calling on Aurora to cancel her shows at Barby because she can make a difference, because she has the power right now to take a stand and, crucially, not undermine a movement for freedom, justice and equality. Aurora says she sings for her Israeli fans, who are the future, but what future is there if one of the harshest occupations in history is art-washed by international performances?
When one sings on stage at the Barby club, one is 45 minutes away from the apartheid wall built by Israel to keep millions of Palestinians oppressed under martial law. Any statement an artist might make on stage in apartheid Tel Aviv would be overshadowed by the fact that they are crossing an international picket line established by the absolute majority of Palestinian civil society, including women’s organizations. As with apartheid in South Africa, only pressure from the outside on Israel’s far-right apartheid regime can compel it to end the denial of Palestinians’ fundamental human rights.
We hope that Aurora continues to engage with those of us calling on her to reconsider her scheduled performances. She says that she stands “on people’s side, in the fight against injustice and violence”. We believe her. But we disagree that heeding the call of the oppressed Palestinians is “like looking the other way”. It is the opposite. Before her is the chance to look straight into the eyes of the oppressed, and to tell them she will hear them and heed their moral appeals. So far, despite many agreeable words, she has refused to do so.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the largest coalition in Palestinian society that leads the global BDS movement for Palestinian rights, said that Aurora’s dismissal of Palestinian voices means she only “plays into the hands of the oppressor”. We hope that she will instead play a different tune: one of meaningful solidarity.
~ Samir Eskanda is a Palestinian musician ~ Ohal Grietzer is an Israeli composer and mixed-media performer
* This article was originally published in Norwegian in Dagsavisen
An open letter to Aurora by 'Boycott!' from Israel [link]:
Title: From Israeli citizens to Aurora - Please cancel your concert in Israel
Date: October 2019
From Israeli citizens to Aurora - Please cancel your concert in Israel
October 2019
Dear Aurora,
We are citizens of Israel, opposed to our government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people [1]. We write to ask you to respect the Palestinian civil society call [2], especially its cultural aspect [3], and to cancel your concert in Israel.
Since late March 2018, Israel has been committing an ongoing massacre in the Gaza strip, of unarmed Palestinian protesters who are calling for an end to the 12-year-long siege that Israel has imposed on them [4]. This siege renders them prisoners of the biggest open-air prison in the world, which the United Nations has warned will become "unliveable" by next year [5].
In the West Bank, Israel has been employing a brutal, belligerent military regime for the past 50 years, and expanding its colonial settlement project, which a recent report of The office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights has described as “pervasive and devastating [violations of human rights], reaching every facet of Palestinian life”, further listing numerous violations such as "restrictions on freedom of religion, movement and education; their rights to land and water; access to livelihoods and their right to an adequate standard of living; their rights to family life; and many other fundamental human rights." [6].
Within Israel itself, indigenous Palestinian citizens - 21% of the population - are subjected to over 65 laws denying them basic equality, civil, and human rights [7], culminating in its most recent act of legislation: the 'Nation-State Law', which enshrines apartheid into Israel's equivalent of a constitution [8].
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn’t even begin to describe what life is like for the millions of children, women, and men, who have been living under these ever-deteriorating policies for the past seven decades.
You may be asking yourself what this has to do with your concert. For one, the Israeli promoters of your concert, ZUZZ Agency, are also part of the production team for the InDnegev festival. The festival is partnered with the government's Negev Development Authority [9], which is the architect and executioner of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of 239,500 indigenous Palestinian Bedouins, who account for almost 3% of Israel's citizenry [10].
Secondly, the club you'll be playing, the Barby Club, has a history of support for Israel's army during its bloodiest acts of war. In 2014, while Israel was bombing the Gaza concentration camp for over 50 days [11], the Barby club was at an army base, giving out "fu ck you we're from Israel" T-shirts to the soldiers perpetrating crimes against humanity [12].
Aurora, in your September interview with NME [13] you said "The world won’t listen to scientific proof that the world is dying, so maybe it will listen to the dreamers, the children... Believe in us, and maybe we’ll be the generation that saves the world, rather than the one that killed it. The world is bleeding. It’s up to us now." We hope you'll heed the proof that Palestine and its children [14] are bleeding. We believe that you can help save them rather than kill them. Please don't ignore their call to hold Israel accountable. Please cancel your concert in Israel.
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within
Two articles in the Norwegian Newspaper 'Dagsavisen': [link1] [link2]
Title: Prøvde å dysse ned Aurora-konserter i Israel (engl: Tried to hush up Aurora concerts in Israel) Date: 2019-10-02, update: 2021-02-20
Prøvde å dysse ned Aurora-konserter i Israel
Manageren til artisten Aurora innrømmer å ha prøvd å dysse ned at hun skal spille to konserter i Tel Aviv i Israel.
Aurora Aksnes. (Foto: Lene Sørøy Neverdal)
Av NTB nyheter
Publisert: 02/10/2019 Sist oppdatert: 20/02/2021
Aurora Aksnes' (23) manager Geir Luedy skriver i en tekstmelding til Klassekampen at konsertplanene i Israel med hensikt er utelatt fra artistens nettside fordi de ønsker «minst mulig henvendelser av denne typen».
Aurora skal spille rundt 30 konserter de tre neste månedene, men konsertene i Tel Aviv 14. og 15. november er utelatt fra oversikten.
Nestleder Øystein Grønning i Palestinakomiteen er skuffet over at Aurora, i liket med Kygo og a-ha, velger å holde konsert i Israel.
– Det ser ut til at pengene lokker mer enn solidariteten, sier han.
Luedy videreformidler en skriftlig uttalelse fra Aurora der hun sier at hun liker å snakke om medmenneskelighet, empati og kjærlighet. Hun tilføyer at hun ikke kan la noens politikk stoppe henne fra å dra til mennesker og «røre i dem».
– Jeg tror det er det beste en musiker kan gjøre. Og kanskje det viktigste, skriver hun.
Translation (www.DeepL.com):
Tried to hush up Aurora concerts in Israel
Aurora's manager admits that he tried to hush up two concerts in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Aurora Aksnes. (Foto: Lene Sørøy Neverdal)
By NTB news Published: 02/10/2019 Last updated: 20/02/2021
Aurora Aksnes' (23) manager Geir Luedy writes in a text message to Klassekampen that the concert plans in Israel have been deliberately omitted from the artist's website because they want "as few enquiries of this type as possible".
Aurora is scheduled to play around 30 concerts over the next three months, but the concerts in Tel Aviv on 14 and 15 November have been omitted from the list.
Deputy chairman Øystein Grønning of the Palestine Committee is disappointed that Aurora, like Kygo and a-ha, chooses to hold a concert in Israel.
- "It seems that money is more appealing than solidarity," he says.
Luedy passes on a written statement from Aurora in which she says that she likes to talk about humanity, empathy and love. She adds that she can't let anyone's politics stop her from going to people and "touching them".
- "I think it's the best thing a musician can do. And perhaps the most important," she writes.
Title: Aurora, ikke vær et sverd (engl: Aurora, don't be a sword)
Author: Samir Eskanda, Ohal Grietzer
Date: 2019-11-14, update: 2021-02-20
Aurora, ikke vær et sverd
I dag spiller Aurora i Tel Aviv. En palestinsk og en israelsk musiker ber henne igjen om å avstå.
Torsdag og fredag gjør Aurora to omstridte konserter i Tel Aviv. Foto: Mode Steinkjer
Dette er et debattinnlegg som gir uttrykk for skribentens holdninger og meninger. Du kan sende inn debattinnlegg til debatt@dagsavisen.no.
Av Samir Eskanda , dagsavisen.no og Ohal Grietzer , dagsavisen.no
Publisert: 13/11/2019
Sist oppdatert: 20/02/2021
Aurora sier hun er en lilje, ikke et sverd. Som palestinske og israelske musikere, ber vi henne innstendig om å være tro mot sitt ord, ved å nekte å la hennes musikk og profil bli utnyttet som propagandavåpen av Israel.
Israel utnytter på utvetydig vis alle internasjonale artister til å dekke over undertrykking. Særlig gjelder det dem som bevisst avviser moralske appeller om å nekte å opptre i israelske kulturinstitusjoner som er medskyldige i undertrykkingen.
Barby Club i Tel Aviv, der Aurora skal opptre to ganger i november, er en slik kulturscene. Barby delte ut gratis T-trøyer til israelske okkupasjonssoldater som deltok i 2014-massakrene i Gaza, der mer enn 2200 palestinere ble drept, av dem 500 barn. T-trøyene hadde Barby Club-logoen og teksten «**** you, we’re from Israel». Barby la stolt ut bilder på Internett. Dette aleine burde være evig nok til å røre hjertet på enhver artist, særlig Auroras.
Hun har sikkert samvittighetsnag av et så grelt eksempel på et hypermilitarisert samfunns sømløse enhet med kulturen, slik tilfellet er i Tel Aviv.
Vi er to av de palestinske og israelske artistene som skreiv åpne brev til Aurora, der vi ber henne avlyse konsertene i Tel Aviv.
Palestinske artister skreiv at «når mer enn 150 norske artister sluttet seg til palestinske, israelske og internasjonale oppfordringer til å boikotte Eurovision-finalen i Tel Aviv i mai i år, så viste de sin moralske forpliktelse til ikke å skade vår strid for frihet, rettferdighet og likhet.»
Samtidig skreiv israelske artister at de «ikke kan sitte tause, så lenge deres palestinske motparter måtte holde ut munnkurv, umenneskeliggjøring og vold».
Aurora fikk et annet brev fra israelske «Boycott from Within». Deres offentlige støtte til den palestinsk-ledede bevegelsen for boikott, desinvesteringer og sanksjoner (BDS) har nå tilslutning fra over 1000 israelske statsborgere, de fleste jødiske.
De gjorde Aurora oppmerksom på at den såkalte Jewish Nation-State Law, vedtatt i fjor, «opphøyer apartheid i Israels motstykke til en grunnlov». Denne befestningen av apartheid var bare det seineste eksempelet: Palestinske borgere av Israel var allerede underlagt 65 rasistiske lover.
På samme vis som artister nektet å spille i Sun City under kampen mot apartheid i Sør-Afrika, bes artister i dag om ikke å øve vold mot palestinernes ikke-voldsmotstand, ved å avstå fra å opptre for apartheid i Tel Aviv.
Den voksende solidariteten mellom globale grasrotbevegelser og palestinerne, inkludert LGBTQ-organisasjoner og organisasjoner for feminister, svart frigjøring og klimarettferdighet, er best fanget opp av Angela Davis’ udødelige utsagn om at rettferdighet er udelelig.
Vi betviler ikke Auroras gode hensikt. Det går klart fram av det hun sier. Men verden er ofte brutalt likegyldig til lidelse, og folk ber nå Aurora avlyse Barby-showene fordi hun kan utgjøre en forskjell. Fordi hun har makt til nettopp nå å ta anstendig standpunkt. Det er avgjørende at hun ikke underminerer en bevegelse for frihet, rettferdighet og likeverd.
Aurora sier hun synger for sine israelske fans fordi de er framtida, men hva slags framtid er dette dersom en av de mest brutale okkupasjonene i historien blir «kunst-vasket» av internasjonale artister?
De som opptrer på Barby Club befinner seg tre kvarter fra apartheid-muren bygd av Israel for å holde millioner av palestinere undertrykket under militærlovgivning.
Et hvilket som helst utsagn en artist måtte komme med i apartheid-Tel Aviv overskygges av det faktum at artisten har brutt en internasjonal skanse, etablert av det store flertallet av palestinsk sivilsamfunn, inkludert kvinnebevegelsen.
Som tilfellet var med Sør-Afrika, er det bare press fra utsida som kan tvinge Israels ytre høyre apartheidregime til å ende fornektingen av palestinernes grunnleggende menneskerettigheter.
Vi håper Aurora fortsetter samtalen med dem av oss som trygler henne om å revurdere sine planlagte opptredener. Hun sier hun «står på folkets side i kampen mot urettferdighet og vold». Vi tror henne.
Men vi er uenige i at å lytte til ropet fra de knugede palestinerne er «å se den annen vei». Det er motsatt. Foran henne ligger sjansen til å se rett i øynene til de undertrykte, og fortelle dem at hun vil lytte og ta hensyn til deres moralske appell.
Til nå har hun nektet tvert, trass i mange vakre ord.
Den palestinske kampanjen for akademisk og kulturell boikott av Israel (PACBI) er stifteren av den største koalisjonen i det palestinske samfunnet.
Denne koalisjonen leder den internasjonale BDS-bevegelsen for palestinske rettigheter. Ved å avvise de palestinske stemmene spiller Aurora «rett i hendene på undertrykkeren» ifølge PACBI.
Vi håper hun heller vil spille en annen melodi, en av meningsfylt solidaritet.
Aurora ble invitert til å svare på innlegget, men har takket nei.
Translation (www.DeepL.com):
Aurora, don't be a sword
Today Aurora is playing in Tel Aviv. A Palestinian and an Israeli musician again ask her to refrain On Thursday and Friday, Aurora will perform two controversial concerts in Tel Aviv. Photo: Mode Steinkjer
This is an opinion piece that expresses the writer's views and opinions. You can submit opinion pieces to debatt@dagsavisen.no.
By Samir Eskanda, dagsavisen.no and Ohal Grietzer, dagsavisen.no
Published: 13/11/2019 Last updated: 20/02/2021
Aurora says she is a lily, not a sword. As Palestinian and Israeli musicians, we urge her to be true to her word by refusing to allow her music and profile to be utilised as propaganda weapons by Israel.
Israel unequivocally utilises all international artists to cover up oppression. Especially those who deliberately reject moral appeals to refuse to perform in Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit in the repression.
The Barby Club in Tel Aviv, where Aurora will perform twice in November, is one such cultural venue. Barby distributed free T-shirts to Israeli occupation soldiers who took part in the 2014 massacres in Gaza, where more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, 500 of them children. The T-shirts featured the Barby Club logo and the text "fu ck you, we're from Israel". Barby proudly posted pictures on the Internet. This alone should be eternal enough to touch the heart of any artist, especially Aurora's.
She must be conscience-stricken by such a glaring example of a hyper-militarised society's seamless unity with culture, as is the case in Tel Aviv.
We are two of the Palestinian and Israeli artists who wrote open letters to Aurora, asking her to cancel the concerts in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian artists wrote that "when more than 150 Norwegian artists joined Palestinian, Israeli and international calls to boycott the Eurovision final in Tel Aviv in May this year, they showed their moral obligation not to harm our struggle for freedom, justice and equality."
At the same time, Israeli artists wrote that they "cannot remain silent as long as their Palestinian counterparts have to endure muzzling, dehumanisation and violence".
Aurora received another letter from Israeli "Boycott from Within". Their public support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has now been endorsed by over 1,000 Israeli citizens, most of them Jewish.
They drew Aurora's attention to the fact that the so-called Jewish Nation-State Law, passed last year, "elevates apartheid in Israel's equivalent of a constitution". This entrenchment of apartheid was only the latest example: Palestinian citizens of Israel were already subject to 65 racist laws.
Just as artists refused to perform in Sun City during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, artists today are asked not to inflict violence on Palestinian non-violent resistance by refraining from performing in favour of apartheid in Tel Aviv.
The growing solidarity between global grassroots movements and the Palestinians, including LGBTQ, feminist, black liberation and climate justice organisations, is best captured by Angela Davis' immortal statement that justice is indivisible.
We don't doubt Aurora's good intentions. It's clear from what she says. But the world is often brutally indifferent to suffering, and people are now asking Aurora to cancel the Barby shows because she can make a difference. Because she has the power to take a decent stand right now. It is crucial that she does not undermine a movement for freedom, justice and equality.
Aurora says she sings for her Israeli fans because they are the future, but what kind of future is this if one of the most brutal occupations in history is "art-washed" by international artists?
The performers at the Barby Club are three blocks from the apartheid wall built by Israel to keep millions of Palestinians oppressed under military law.
Any statement an artist might make in apartheid Tel Aviv is overshadowed by the fact that the artist has breached an international bulwark established by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society, including the women's movement.
As was the case with South Africa, only outside pressure can force Israel's far-right apartheid regime to end its denial of Palestinians' basic human rights.
We hope Aurora continues the conversation with those of us who are pleading with her to reconsider her planned appearances. She says she "stands with the people in the fight against injustice and violence". We believe her.
But we disagree that listening to the cry of the huddled Palestinians is "looking the other way". It's the opposite. Before her lies the chance to look straight into the eyes of the oppressed, and tell them that she will listen and heed their moral appeal.
Until now, she has refused to do so, despite many fine words.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is the founder of the largest coalition in the Palestinian community.
This coalition leads the international BDS movement for Palestinian rights. By rejecting the Palestinian vote, Aurora is "playing right into the hands of the oppressor" according to PACBI.
We hope she will instead play a different tune, one of meaningful solidarity.
Aurora was invited to respond to the post, but has declined.
i know thats an older quote, but im kinda tirng of this. shes simply wrong, palestine is not "occupied" by israel and hasnt been since 2005
im not jewish, but as someone who has seen her a dozen times over the last six years, and (at least) three of the biggest US fans i know are all jewish, its insulting that she pushes this propaganda, its clearly a play to her largely "woke" (aka uneducated on his topic) fanbase
she claims to unequivocally support gay/trans rights wile simultaneously supporting palestine... who elected hamas as their leadership who would literally execute every non-cis person they could access... its insane
Please don't condemn the people of a country because of their government. If Aurora did that she wouldn't have performed in the US when Trump was President.
i know thats an older quote, but im kinda tirng of this. shes simply wrong, palestine is not "occupied" by israel and hasnt been since 2005
im not jewish, but as someone who has seen her a dozen times over the last six years, and (at least) three of the biggest US fans i know are all jewish, its insulting that she pushes this propaganda, its clearly a play to her largely "woke" (aka uneducated on his topic) fanbase
she claims to unequivocally support gay/trans rights wile simultaneously supporting palestine... who elected hamas as their leadership who would literally execute every non-cis person they could access... its insane
I agree.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Israel suffered a horrible attack on October and I don't see her or any of the woke brainwashed crazy crowd talking about it. The majority of Palestinian people supports Hamas and their actions. Sadly they are brainwashed by their religion and culture. I don't see an easy way out of this, when they want all Jews dead. Hamas builds their tunnels under civilian buildings on purpose. The blood of civilians is on their hands, not Israel's. Israel is the only country that warns before bombing, in an attempt to avoid civilian casualties. No other army in the world does this. I don't see how they could handle this situation any better.
I'm not from Israel and I'm an Atheist, not a Jew. I'm simply getting my information from reliable sources, instead of TikTok...
I wish Aurora would stay out of political matters and just share her music without such strong views attached... I also disagree with the other woke issues...
Attended AURORA shows: 08/04/2019 The Courtyard Theatre, London, UK 08/06/2019 Rough Trade East, London, UK
i know thats an older quote, but im kinda tirng of this. shes simply wrong, palestine is not "occupied" by israel and hasnt been since 2005
im not jewish, but as someone who has seen her a dozen times over the last six years, and (at least) three of the biggest US fans i know are all jewish, its insulting that she pushes this propaganda, its clearly a play to her largely "woke" (aka uneducated on his topic) fanbase
she claims to unequivocally support gay/trans rights wile simultaneously supporting palestine... who elected hamas as their leadership who would literally execute every non-cis person they could access... its insane
Please don't condemn the people of a country because of their government. If Aurora did that she wouldn't have performed in the US when Trump was President.
with all due respect, comparing the trump administration (which I do not support) with hamas is faulty on numerous levels. One has ideas that are easy to disagree with, the other has genocide as a fundamental tenet.
i know thats an older quote, but im kinda tirng of this. shes simply wrong, palestine is not "occupied" by israel and hasnt been since 2005
im not jewish, but as someone who has seen her a dozen times over the last six years, and (at least) three of the biggest US fans i know are all jewish, its insulting that she pushes this propaganda, its clearly a play to her largely "woke" (aka uneducated on his topic) fanbase
she claims to unequivocally support gay/trans rights wile simultaneously supporting palestine... who elected hamas as their leadership who would literally execute every non-cis person they could access... its insane
I agree.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Israel suffered a horrible attack on October and I don't see her or any of the woke brainwashed crazy crowd talking about it. The majority of Palestinian people supports Hamas and their actions. Sadly they are brainwashed by their religion and culture. I don't see an easy way out of this, when they want all Jews dead. Hamas builds their tunnels under civilian buildings on purpose. The blood of civilians is on their hands, not Israel's. Israel is the only country that warns before bombing, in an attempt to avoid civilian casualties. No other army in the world does this. I don't see how they could handle this situation any better.
I'm not from Israel and I'm an Atheist, not a Jew. I'm simply getting my information from reliable sources, instead of TikTok...
I wish Aurora would stay out of political matters and just share her music without such strong views attached... I also disagree with the other woke issues...
For people who are open to educate themselves on the subject, some interesting Jewish voices:
For people who are open to educate themselves on the subject, some interesting Jewish voices:
That's a bubble with a lot of wrong information...
youtu.be/FEyt16L48kM?si=YcQc_fnZsYE4-jPh Here's a Muslim woman speaking in behalf of Jews and explaining about the land situation. If you read the comments you'll also learn that Israeli people would be happy with 2 states side by side, as long as the Palestinians didn't want to kill them! They've tried numerous solutions over the years. They retreated from Gaza, they offered money to develop the country and free medical help, they allowed organizations to help the Palestinians so much their population has exploded and is mostly young (very indoctrinated!) people, despite the fact that a huge percentage of the adult population is unemployed. As a thanks, the Palestinians launch rockets into Israel and do terrorist attacks... That's what they choose to spend their money on.
For people who are open to educate themselves on the subject, some interesting Jewish voices:
That's a bubble with a lot of wrong information...
Because I like a respectful way of communication, I asked Cheila per DM to edit their comment, but until now there was no reply. It was written, that the links I offered for people to learn more about the subject Palestine/Israel are a "bubble with a lot of wrong information".
I would say, just because they don't support their point of view, it doesn't mean that it's ok to label them "wrong", especially without explaining what is supposed to be wrong.
Consciously I was presenting only jewish voices, which view the topic from different angles. Some of them being internationally highly respected scholars, religious capacities and peaceactivists but also victims of the recent atrocities.
Everyone can check the links Cheila and I added and can form their own opinion.
i see shes still relentless n her support of palestine/hamas, and yes they are essentially interchangable as over 3/4 of palestineans support the actions of october seventh and fully support hamas
this will only lose her fans, i already know several longterm jewish fans who have given up on her.