📣CALLING ALL CULTURAL ORGANISATIONS, ARTS WORKERS & AUDIENCES: Pledge your support for The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and to become an Apartheid Free Zone.
At Praxis Union’s 2024 AGM, our members unanimously voted to commit to becoming an Apartheid Free Zone, to support the principles of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) and PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), and to encourage arts organisations across Ireland to pledge to do the same. Since then, we have held strategy meetings with @apartheidfreearts and the International BDS committee. We are now calling on arts organisations in Ireland to sign-up to become Apartheid Free Zones by pledging their support for The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
What is PACBI?
“The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) was initiated in 2004 to contribute to the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality. It advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions for their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights that are stipulated in international law. PACBI is a founding member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee and is tasked with overseeing the academic and cultural boycott aspects of BDS.’’
What action can you take?
Members of the Public: Write to cultural and academic spaces to ask them to publicly support PACBI and become an Apartheid Free Zone .
Arts and cultural workers: Collectively demand that the arts and cultural spaces you work in publicly pledge to commit to PACBI. Organise meetings with staff, teams, and peers, speak and see if they will support PACBI, post a Pledge card on your social media.
Arts and cultural spaces: We ask that arts and cultural spaces commit to concrete action by publicly committing to Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). We welcome all Irish cultural organisations who wish to publicly pledge to support the PACBI and become an Apartheid Free Zone to contact us at campaigns@praxisunion.ie. All organisations who make the pledge will be sent a information pack by www.apartheidfree.ie/
We would like to acknowledge the years of hard work that Arts Workers for Palestine Scotland @artworkersforpalestinescotland have undertaken in advocating for PACBI in Scotland, we have adopted large aspects of their strategy for an Irish context.
Image description
Slide 1:
Apartheid Free Zone graphic by artist Mel Keane. A green to red gradient in the background, in the foreground is a drawing of hands pulling apart chains surrounded by watermelon seeds. Text reads: This arts organisation declares itself an Apartheid-Free Zone, by doing so we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and are committed to foster a space free of Israel’s apartheid. We pledge to adhere to the principles of PACBI and BDS, and will not participate in or promote activities/ projects/events that legitimises or normalises Israeli oppression.
Slide 2: A green to red gradient, with black text that reads: By becoming an Apartheid-Free Zone, we commit to auditing our organisation to ensure we are supporting the principles of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) by: 1. Boycotting Israeli products and companies and boycotting international companies that profit from Israeli human rights abuses.
- Boycotting Israeli academic, cultural institutions and funding.
- Refuse ‘normalisation’ efforts seeking to justify Israel’s violence or present a false symmetry between oppressed and oppressor.
Below this are the logos for Praxis Union, Apartheid Free Arts, and the Apartheid Free Zones campaign.
