Bon Jovi, Boycott Israel

World renowned band, Bon Jovi, is scheduled to perform in Israel on October 3rd. We ask the members of the band, Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres, to reconsider their concert in apartheid Israel, until Israel complies with international law and respects the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Though producer Marcel Avram said in an interview to The Times of Israel that “Bon Jovi couldn’t care less” [1], we make this appeal based on the assumption that Jon Bon Jovi cares about human rights. We know that through his Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation he helps “combat issues that force families and individuals into economic despair.”

Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people have caused enormous despair, death, injury, and displacement, to millions of people. After Israel’s latest attack on the besieged Gaza strip, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports Israel destroyed, or severely damaged 18,000 houses. Almost no homes have been rebuilt since. 108,000 Palestinians in Gaza are homeless. [2]

The World Bank reported that Israel’s latest attack on the besieged Gaza strip “put further stress on an already struggling Palestinian economy with falling income per capita in 2013, projected to contract further by the end of 2014”, stressing that restrictions of movement by Israel must be lifted. The report goes further on to say that “The deterioration of the Palestinian economy continued in 2014, particularly in Gaza where the situation was dire even before the recent conflict. The average yearly economic growth exceeded 8% between 2007 and 2011 but declined to 1.9% in 2013, and reached minus 1% for the first quarter of 2014. A quarter of the Palestinian population lives in poverty, with the rate in Gaza twice as high as that in the West Bank, as Palestinian businesses were crippled by the restrictions on movement of people and goods.” [3]

The human rights organisation B’Tselem reports that “since the beginning of the occupation, Israel has deliberately prevented the creation of an independent Palestinian economy and has contributed to the grave economic hardship now existing in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Rather than help rectify the problem it caused, the State of Israel continues to deny many Palestinians their right to work and earn a livelihood.” This report goes into great detail how Israel systematically impoverishes the Palestinian population under its military control, as a matter of policy. [4]

We would like to tell Bon Jovi that it’s the moral obligation of each of us not to legitimize systematically abusive states. The band should also be aware of the local production company’s commercial involvement with Israel’s military rule over the occupied Palestinian territories. Some of BlueStone Productions’ clients are Motorola, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Bank Leumi, Motorola provides Internet access on 630 carriages and all train stations of the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem A1 Fast Train which cuts through stolen Palestinian village land in the occupied West Bank, HP provides the biometric control systems installed in Israel’s checkpoints and restricting Palestinian movement. Bank Leumi finances housing projects and mortgages for home buyers in Israel's illegal settlements for Jewish Israeli citizens in the occupied West Bank. The bank also provides financial services to local settlement authorities, and loans for Israeli businesses in occupied territories. BlueStone also seems to find amusing the Israeli occupying army’s version of “The Harlem Shake”, which it posted on its Facebook page, showcasing soldiers dancing on a tank and waving their weapons in the air, near the besieged borders of Gaza. [5]

Due to all this, and the fact that it is official Israel government policy not to distinguish between culture and state propaganda [6], we ask that you do the right thing, and boycott apartheid Israel, just like artists boycotted apartheid South Africa several decades ago. Israel’s consulates are already promoting the band’s concert [7], and so are Israel lobbying groups [8]. The band’s concert is already being used to divert attention from Israel’s human rights abuses and war crimes.

Please make a firm statement against apartheid, systematic impoverishment and military occupation. Please Boycott Israel until apartheid comes to an end.

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[1] http://www.timesofisrael.com/hard-rockers-bon-jovi-announce-october-3-concert/
[2] http://www.ochaopt.org/content.aspx?id=1010361
[3] http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/09/16/palestinian-economy-in-decline-and-unemployment-rising-to-alarming-levels
[4] http://www.btselem.org/workers
[5] http://pulsemedia.org/2013/06/27/rihanna-get-on-the-virtual-tour-bus-from-yarkon-park-tel-aviv-around-the-world-to-occupied-palestine/
[6] http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/about-face-1.170267
[7] https://twitter.com/IsraelinBoston/status/608403783975112704
https://twitter.com/IsraelinSF/status/608403040597602305
https://twitter.com/IsraelMontreal/status/608385621539749888
[8] https://twitter.com/StandWithUsGer/status/608524674553802752
https://twitter.com/SussexFriends/status/608292278659088384
https://twitter.com/SFI_NOW/status/608431666814685184
https://twitter.com/reThink_Israel/status/608356752879403008