Independent Arts Projects joins other arts organisations across Scotland in condemning the ongoing genocide against the people of Palestine at the hands of the Israeli state. We express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their long struggle for justice, freedom, and equality, and add our voice to those calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the occupation, and a free Palestine.
In this spirit, Independent Arts Projects commits to the Palestinian-led international call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), including signing on to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
PACBI, (which was modelled on the cultural & academic boycott of the apartheid regime in South Africa) is not a boycott of individual Israelis, but of a state whose fundamental violations of human rights cannot and should not be normalised.
In following the principles of PACBI, Independent Arts Projects pledges to:
- Boycott cultural projects and organisations that are in receipt of funding from the Israeli Government, official Israeli institutions or Israeli embassy;
- Decline to participate in forms of cultural collaboration or cooperation with official Israel institutions;
- Refuse to host, promote, or endorse events or arts projects that seek to “normalise” oppression and occupation, or otherwise give a false parity between oppressor and oppressed; and
- Directly support and platform Palestinian artists, arts organisations and cultural institutions without demanding that they partner with Israeli counterparts under the guise of “coexistence” or as a condition for such support.
As part of our internal conversations around BDS and PACBI, we have discussed how Independent Arts Projects might more fully embody the boycott we are pledging ourselves to uphold. Because we want our endorsement of BDS and PACBI to reach beyond this statement, we commit to reviewing our programming practices and creating guidelines for purchasing to ensure that we adhere to the boycott campaign in the ways available to us, big and small.
This statement comes following several discussions with our staff team and board of trustees and some of the freelancers we work with. We are grateful to many organisations who served as models in our discussion and for the labour undertaken by Arts Workers for Palestine in prompting us to act and stand in solidarity.