Dear Felix,

The United States Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) has recently learned that you plan to perform in Tel Aviv in December 2010. On behalf of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, we are urging you to cancel your performance, which would violate the Palestinian people”s call for global solidarity in the form of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), until Israel comply with international law. In 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called upon the international community to express its support for Palestinian human rights and use tactics similar to those of the activists in apartheid South Africa. Since then, artists such as Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Gil Scott-Heron, and many more, have cancelled their scheduled performances in Israel, just as artists of conscience had refused to perform in Sun City during the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

We, as American academics and artists, ask you to join us and uphold the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, until it complies with international law. While Israeli citizens are free to come to your concert, Palestinians who live only 30 minutes away are confined by an illegal Wall, checkpoints, settlements, and a lack of freedom to travel. The international community has called upon Israel to adhere to international law, to UN conventions, even to the USA urging at a settlement freeze. And yet, settlements expand daily, stealing more land and suffocating Palestinian society.

Consider that your music has meaning beyond the beats and that by cancelling your Tel Aviv show, you can support the Palestinians who live under siege, occupied and as refugees.

Sincerely,
The US Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

For more information, please refer to our website,
www.usacbi.org