SFI condemns the invitation given to the Israeli Ambassador, Daniel Carmon, and the Spokesman of the Israeli Embassy in India, Ohad Horsandi to inaugurate the 3rd Delhi International Film Festival 2014, to be held from 20th to 27th December in New Delhi. The SFI believes that art and culture cannot be separated from matters of conscience and principle. The Israeli state consistently and ruthlessly tramples on the academic freedom and cultural life of the Palestinian people. When Palestinian students and teachers are not allowed to reach their universities because of permit laws and checkpoints; when universities and schools are leveled by bombs and tanks; food, textbooks and medical supplies are prohibited from entering Gaza; and when artistic events are closed down in Jerusalem, none of the foundational principles on which academic and cultural contact are based can ever be fulfilled. Along with artists and citizens of conscience, the SFI, protests against the involvement of representatives of the Israeli state in our cultural events. Just a few months back, Israel unleashed yet another wave of attacks on Gaza as well as the West Bank. The repression continues in what is supposed to be a time of ceasefire, as do the ongoing realities of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the rampant discrimination against Palestinians within Israel. The apartheid policies of the Israeli state – genocidal military attacks, exclusionary walls, large-scale demolitions and evictions, construction of illegal settlements, discriminatory laws, unrelenting economic and civic blockades – have deprived the Palestinian people of even the most basic social, economic, political and cultural rights. Associating with the instruments of such a state is unconscionable to any freedom loving person. We are not against Israeli artists and intellectuals, but are opposed to official Israeli institutions, which by virtue of being state institutions help perpetrate the illegal and inhuman occupation of Palestine and the imposition of state apartheid there. At a time when the international movement to isolate Israel is gaining ground in response to the escalation of Israel’s colonial and racist policies, should we hold events under the patronage of the Israeli state in India? The SFI condemns this move as yet another plan to promote links between India and Israel by compromising cultural practitioners as well as citizens of conscience in both India and Israel. The current government in Delhi is unabashedly intent on forging ever-closer ties with Israel. By doing this, it will further implicate all Indians of conscience in the subjugation of Palestinians by Israel. In the spirit of international solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression, we call upon all fellow Indians to protest every such attempt.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 18:23:17 +0000
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