Hamas bedfellow of Australian BDS supporters
All those who joined the boycott of the Sydney Festival created by its acceptance of a A$20,000 sponsorship by the Israeli embassy in Canberra have had a powerful Israeli enemy join their ranks.
The Palestinian Info Centre published a story stating that the Hamas Movement hailed the Sydney festival boycott by a group of artists over a sponsorship deal with the Israeli embassy in a statement issued on Thursday.
The statement was issued after more than 20 acts have pulled out of the 2022 Sydney festival, just 48 hours before the opening night, boycotting the festival over a sponsorship deal with the Israeli embassy.
“We commend and appreciate this decision that came in solidarity with the Palestinians’ legitimate rights, and in opposition to the Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people,” the statement read.
“We declare our solidarity with the participants who have withdrawn from the festival, and we call on all participants to raise their voices in face of oppression and injustice,” it added.
The comedian Tom Ballard, the Beauvoir theatre production of Black Brass, former NSW politician Meredith Burgmann, First Nations dance company Marrugeku and commentator Yumi Stynes are just some of the festival participants who have either cancelled or distanced themselves in protest, joining a growing number of Arab, pro-Palestinian, First Nations and Greens groups spearheading the call for a boycott.
The president of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler tweeted: “The organisers of the boycott of the Sydney Festival finally have the endorsement of their ideological parent – Hamas!”
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, added: “It is now plain that the Sydney Festival boycotters have unwittingly furthered the cause of the misogynists and homophobes of Hamas in seeking the obliteration of Israel. A more accurate description of the ends their actions are serving would be “Artists for Genocide”. How ironic that the only country in the Middle East in which they could create and present their work in safety is Israel, the one country the artists wish to boycott.”
