Carlos Santana Artists Against Apartheid and the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel would like to extend our thanks to Carlos Santana for honoring the call for the Cultural Boycott of Israel, by electing not to perform in the apartheid state. The call for cultural boycott was successful in creating international accountability for human rights violations in apartheid South Africa, and is now being applied in the case of Israel.
The Israeli state has repeatedly evidenced that it relies on artistic propaganda to improve its “international brand” as a pluralistic democracy, all the while continuing state sponsored ethnic cleansing. Performing in Israel, as if it were just another stop on the tour, normalizes the apartheid practiced by the Israeli government, and disregards Palestinian led campaigns to organize international solidarity against it (www.bdsmovement.net).
All artists are requested to boycott Israel as a tour destination, except when performing in solidarity with the popular struggle against occupation, dispossession and apartheid.
Cultural figures like Roger Waters, Arundhati Roy, Brian Eno, John Berger, and Ken Loach have expanded their advocacy to publicly hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and war crimes. We hope that Santana, as an advocate of human rights, will join Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others engaged in the nonviolent struggle for equal rights and justice for the Palestinian people in endorsing the cultural boycott of Israel.
Artists Against Apartheid – www.artistsagainstapartheid.org
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel – www.usacbi.org
