The BDS movement has always understood ending complicity in genocidal Israel’s regime of oppression as a journey that we pressure states, corporations and institutions to undergo. Every tax-paying individual in the colonial West is–inadvertently or otherwise–complicit in their governments’ trade with Israel, including military trade, illegal occupation and apartheid trade and so on. The same goes for pension-holders whose pension funds are invested in Israeli weapons companies, banks, or complicit international corporations. This premise is precisely the basis on which we call on individuals to join our movement, and campaign for such funds–as well as states, corporations and institutions–to end complicity in genocide and apartheid.
The same analysis applies to arts organizations who are implicated in the complicity of their parent companies, including but not limited to Live Nation subsidiaries and Superstruct’s events. In order to effectively and strategically pressure them to cut their complicity, PACBI welcomes the steps they take to do so, while calling for further pressure if all of our demands have not yet been met. This was PACBI’s approach for the Superstruct-owned Barcelona festival Sónar, for instance, among hundreds of other cases over more than two decades. This approach provides an incentive for arts organizations to continue on the journey to meet our demands, by cutting down their complicity through the decisions they can actually make.
It should be noted that welcoming such steps does not constitute endorsement of the organization in question. Since 2004, PACBI has never endorsed any international organization that has been a target of pressure or boycotts. On the other hand, at least 1,500 international arts organizations have endorsed our call for the cultural boycott of Israel, become Apartheid Free Zones, and/or endorsed PACBI and the BDS movement. We wholeheartedly welcome these endorsements, while encouraging these organizations to ensure that all of their policies and practices are fully aligned with our guidelines and priority targets, which evolve over time.
That said, we stand in solidarity with strategic initiatives that pressure institutions who endorse BDS to address the demands of other racial, social, economic, climate and gender justice movements.
