illustration by Michael DeForge
In total solidarity with the Indigenous people of Palestine, who have suffered under the eliminationist violence of the Western imperial powers and the Zionist settler colonial regime for more than a century…
FIST supports to adhering to the Palestinian international call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and to complying with the underlying guidelines for the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
In our organizational and individual capacities we therefore support:
Refraining from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
Promote divestment and disinvestment from the state of Israel by international academic institutions;
Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
The BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, or religion) or opinion. Mere affiliation of Israeli cultural workers to an Israeli cultural institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott. If, however, an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution, or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to “rebrand” itself, then their activities are subject to the institutional boycott the BDS movement is calling for.
PACBI, or The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions for their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights as stipulated by international law.
Initiated in 2004 and inspired by the cultural boycott campaign against apartheid South Africa, PACBI aims to draw a line between culture workers and the actions of governments funding and endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel.
Cultural institutions and their communities are part and parcel of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israeli cultural institutions (including performing art companies, music groups, film organizations, writers’ unions and festivals) have cast their lot with the hegemonic Zionist establishment in Israel. Notwithstanding the efforts of principled individual artists, writers, and filmmakers, these institutions are clearly implicated in supporting, justifying and whitewashing Israel’s occupation and systematic denial of Palestinian rights.
PACBI is institutional and does not target individuals as such. Committed to freedom of expression as stipulated in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), PACBI rejects, on principle, boycotts of individuals based on their opinion or identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion). For further information about PACBI guidelines, policy documents, and a list of pledges by artists supporting the cultural boycott of Israel, click here
Signed May 16 2024
