Protest Petition Handed to Festival

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday November 01, 2002 16:30 by IMC Dalek

South Belfast News 1 November 2002 Protest Petition Handed to Festival South Belfast based Palestinian sympathisers have stepped up their campaign to force Belfast Festival organisers to drop a dance act sponsored by the Israeli government from their schedule

South Belfast News
1 November 2002

Protest Petition Handed to Festival

South Belfast based Palestinian sympathisers have stepped up their
campaign to force Belfast Festival organisers to drop a dance act
sponsored by the Israeli government from their schedule.

Representatives of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign handed in
a petition with over 1,500 names to festival organisers at their
College Gardens premises yesterday in a bid to force organisers to
rethink their original decision.

Local campaigners were outraged when it emerged that an Israeli dance
troupe, sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in London, was lined up to
appear in Belfast later this month.

Members of the IPSM had earlier promised to stage a series of
protests designed to highlight their disgust at the decision.

"Over 1,000 signatories are appalled at the decision of the
organisers of the Belfast Festival at Queen's to accept Israeli
government sponsorship," explained IPSM member Ismael Al-Hinti.

"The decision to accept and publicise the sponsorship of a state,
that has to date ignored over 70 UN resolutions, cannot be
justified," he said.

"The Israeli government has been slated internationally for its
illegal and brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Since September 2000, Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza have
murdered 1,939 Palestinians, 400 of which have been children."

Ismael Al-Hinti went to claim that the organisers of the Belfast
Festival at Queen's had acted irresponsibly in allowing the act to go
ahead.

"This petition clearly shows the anger that exists at the acceptance
of support from the Israeli State. To reward this type of behaviour
by associating this government with an internationally recognised
Festival, and the internationally recognised artists taking part, is
both irresponsible and insensitive.

"While the rest of the world is trying to isolate and pressurise the
Sharon government into accepting humane standards, Queens Festival is
giving a platform for Israeli publicity," added Ismael.

Festival Director Stella Hall said the Festival works towards
creating dialogue.

"We promote an open dialogue with artists from all over the world,"
said Stella.

"Artists, who are frequently the first to protest and voice the
suffering of their people, from whichever side of the cultural divide
they hail, are a voice of sanity in a fractured world.

"Not to invite these artists punishes those who are not complicit in
any way. The spotlight should fall instead on those who are," she
added.