Physical Plastic Joins Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
October 2024
For an entire year, we have watched, live-streamed, the settler-colonial state of Israel accelerate its genocide of Palestinians with the full backing of the US government, and now wage a campaign of death across Lebanon. We have witnessed, too, the deafening silence of our cultural institutions and the censorship and blacklisting of those speaking out.
As humans and artists, we cannot, and will not remain silent as we witness another mass extermination of a systemically oppressed people. Institutions and artists alike cannot claim, as many of us do, to be concerned with the most pressing of issues facing humanity, to be committed to human rights, de-colonization, anti-racist practices, diversity and inclusion, climate justice, gender equality etc. while being complicit in the art-washing agenda of a rogue ethno-religious nationalist state.
No one is free unless we are all free.
Physical Plastic unequivocally stands in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for equal human rights, self-determination and peace. Any group or institution that participates in the art-washing of Israel’s crimes against humanity by funding its programming with Israeli blood money, is effectively normalizing decades of violent displacement and ethnic cleansing. Our community should be protesting against all forms of colonization, dispossession, and violence—as we have historically done from South Africa to Palestine—and standing on the front lines of the movement for liberation.
Physical Plastic joins the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) as part of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to end Israel’s illegal occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid.
Our commitment:
Abstaining from collaboration with or funding from Israeli institutions or organizations that have not ended all forms of complicity in Israel’s regime of oppression and that have not endorsed the comprehensive rights of the Palestinian people under international law.
Abstaining from collaboration with cultural and academic organizations that help maintain or normalize the Israeli occupation of Palestine or receive funding from the state of Israel;
Abstaining from participation in festivals, programs or events partially or fully sponsored by an official Israeli body, a complicit institution, or an Israel lobby group;
Refraining from participation in any project or initiative that seeks to normalize the Israeli occupation of Palestine, dehumanize Palestinians, or advance a false symmetry between oppressed and oppressor;
Boycotting any cultural event that is partially or fully sponsored or funded by the state of Israel or complicit Israeli institutions.
This boycott is a refusal to be complicit in art-washing. It is not a boycott of individual artists based on their nationality, ethnicity, or religion. Furthermore, we oppose antisemitism in all forms and recognize it as intrinsic to white supremacy. We reject any conflation between advocacy for Palestinian lives, and racism, hatred, and discrimination against Jewish people.
We urge our peers to join us in boycotting and endorse the PACBI call. Individuals who do not identify as an ensemble, collective, organization or space can use the resources below to initiate a conversation with people you trust within the ones you work with.
More information:
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/pacbi
https://bdsmovement.net/cultural-boycott
In peace and solidarity,
Kestrel Farin Leah & Yiannis Christofides