I have aways been reluctant to blame artists for the polices of their government. I remember well the disconnect between Johnson and me and the current disconnect between Obama and what I believe in .... but I also think there is a time when the artists themseves MUST step up and actively in voice and practice say NOT IN MY NAME , It happened n South Africa, ..it is now now time for artists to say NO to funding from the Government inside and outside of Israel. And time for all artists to say NO to performing inside . Silence means complicity. Yes bottom line it is that simple, I remember going to South Africa to report on the end of the Artist Boycott just when Mandela was being released fron jail. remember hearing him speak in a little white church from where if you looked outside the window you coud see the island he had been imprisoned in. I remember going to Sun City (yes Sun City) to interview Dali Tambo (son of Oliver Tambo) and going with him to the black casino that was part of the complex for the first AIDS benefit concert in South Africa . I remember vividly the almost all black audience stood up and screamed wildly Mama Kia Mama Kia ( i think that's the spelling) when this Dusty Springfield-ish slightly butch blond took the stage and stood there as the room went wild for a good 20 minutes because she had stood up at the peak of her career and said NOT IN MY NAME and was "blacklisted:." the smile on her face radiated her joy at the end of apartheid and the fact she new she had made a the right choice as a white South African. And when she sang it seemed every singe person in the room knew the words to her blacklisted songs. the night was full of back AND white artist who had done the same thing, It seems the time is right for what director Ken loach is calling for ....
Ken Loach calls for cultural boycott of Israel | Film | theguardian.com
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