LONDON, February 9, 2010 (WAFA) - A group of British academics have called on singer Elton John to cancel his summer concert in Israel .
'Political or not political, when you stand up on that stage in Tel Aviv, you line yourself up with a racist state,' the British Committee for Universities of Palestine wrote in an open letter to John on Monday. 'Do you want to give them the satisfaction? Please don't go.'
The committee urged John to read the Goldstone Commission's report on Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza last year in order to understand why his performance carried an inherently political undertone, according to the letter.
They wrote “Dear Elton John: Like much of the world, we think you’re a good bloke. You came out when it was difficult; you admitted your addictions were stronger than you were; you’ve poured money into AIDS research. Oh, and then there’s the music – not bad at all.
'But we’re struggling to understand why you’re playing in Israel on June 17. You may say you’re not a political person, but does an army dropping white phosphorus on a school building full of children demand a political response? Does walling a million and a half people up in a ghetto and then pounding that ghetto to rubble require a political response from us, or a human one?' they said.
'You may say you're not a political person, but does an army dropping white phosphorus on a school building full of children demand a political response? Does walling a million and a half people up in a ghetto and then pounding that ghetto to rubble require a political response from us, or a human one?,” they said. 'You're behaving as if playing in Israel is morally neutral - but how can it be? How can the cruelties Israel practices against the Palestinians - fundamentally because the Palestinians are there, on Palestinian land, and Israel wants them to go - be morally neutral?'
'Okay, you turn up in Ramat Gan, and it gets to that 'Candle in the Wind? moment, and thousands of lighters flicker - but there won't be any Palestinians from the Occupied Territories swaying along with the Israelis - the army won't let them leave their ghettoes,” they added.
'Please read what Judge Goldstone said about the onslaught on Gaza; what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been saying for decades about the crimes committed against the Palestinians. Of course the Israeli state denies it has a case to answer, though it's knee-deep in ethnic cleansing and land-theft and the endless daily suffocating of Palestinian lives and hopes,' they said.
Head of the organization, Prof. Haim Bresheeth, said, 'The letter we published is on Elton John's homepage and is already posted on all of his fan sites on the internet, and has drawn responses that we hope will influence him not to come to Israel.'
According to Bresheeth, a similar initiative resulted in the cancellation of guitarist Santana's Israel show about two weeks ago.
Prof. Bresheeth, who spearheaded the demand to place an academic boycott on Israel more than two years ago, added, 'Unfortunately, we did not succeed in convincing Paul McCartney from canceling his concert, but we will continue to take similar action in order to prevent these respectable artists from arriving in an occupying country that breaks international law. The decision ultimate is in the hands of the artists themselves.'
