Apartheid Dogs

 Not that anyone's asking, but I'm boycotting the Sydney Festival until the end of time, or until their entire board is removed and replaced with people who don’t dribble shit when it comes to Apartheid Israel.

Sydney Festival took money from Apartheid Israel. This is part of a process called Artwashing. Apartheid Israel throws money at the arts to align itself with the entirely apolitical world of the arts. Except Australian Palestinian activists very gently and kindly asked artists booked into the Sydney Festival to withdraw in solidarity with Palestinians, who live under apartheid? Turns out art is political? Because lots of artists agreed to pull out? Suck shit apartheid dogz?

Zionists say, “We are the only democracy in the Middle East. We are a diverse LGBT rainbow paradise” they will also tell you to your face that the Palestinian people don't exist. Israel is kept in the torture and murder business thanks to American assistance. With all that power, the world's greatest superpower (not for long), all that juice behind them, all that suction in Washington, a group of young Palestinian activists got their shit together to gently inquire of performing artists if they might remove themselves from Sydney Festival due to it’s entanglement with Israel and Israel could do nothing because for all their propaganda the people are not really with them anymore.

A lot of artists were relying on income from Sydney Festival shows. Sydney Festival took a major hit. Of course not as major as the artists who pulled out and lost that income, lost that work, that experience, that chance to spread their wings, to meet new people and meet new audiences, but they did the right thing. There were some artists who didn't and we don't talk about them, they have apartheided themselves into irrelevance.

There's one band I was growing to like but I’ll be giving them a big swerve now. I don't support artists who wouldn't support me, because it's all about solidarity. What goes around comes around. Do you support me? I support you. We support each other. It really is that simple. It's not a complicated game of back scratching. It's not a matter of am I getting a drink out of this. It's not a matter of trading favours. It's not corruption. It's not propaganda. It's not handing over money to whitewash a reputation, it's people backing each other up because they can and they should.

In a world that can be so be so chunderous it was beautiful to see young Palestinian activists land a significant blow on Apartheid Israel by gently asking people to do the right thing. Incredible. There's a lot to think about there.

In my own experience with Yelling At Racist Dogs, we realized that self righteously yelling abuse at bad people was nowhere near as effective as hilariously yelling ridiculous abuse at bad people. It was a gentler, kinder way of doing it. As part of WACA, Whistleblowers, Activists and Communities Alliance we worked out that it was much better to arrive at the offices of some bad people like Transfield, Serco or even Telstra in a fairly non confrontational way and begin asking embarrassing questions about the business of oppression, to in fact arrive in good spirits and demonstrate, hey, we're not overburdened by what we're doing, we haven't been driven mad by the hopelessness of the task, we are gently and quietly asking you, “Why do you do what you do? And when do you think you're going to stop?”

The union that represented the workers at Border Force quietly asked WACA to please back off because it was affecting the mental health of Border Force workers. Cool. Good. We were getting them right in the conscience. Have a terrible meltdown you farkern dogs.

What's terrible is what Israel does every single day and what's terrible is a lack of solidarity so complete that I have to bravely, courageously, like a warrior, stop listening to people's music. I applaud the young Palestinian activists who at personal and continuing actual cost, did such great work in shining a harsh spotlight on Israel's practices and making it very clear to Israel there is no escape, the whole world is watching. I'm sure Israel will never forget and all of these advocates and these activists will be targeted indefinitely. That kind of forever targeting will mean they will require our solidarity again and again.

All we have is our integrity, all we have is each other and to work out who the each other in this equation is, which is whoever continues to act in integrity. Those who don't are irrelevant. Best to leave them and move on.