WE WILL NOT BETRAY YOU / I WILL NOT BETRAY YOU

The Coordination of “the Strasbourg Manifesto for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis” is now consisting of over 800 associations, NGOs, trade-unions, religious groups from 22 European Union countries plus some non-EU countries such as Switzerland.

At the international level, the Coordination now calls upon all its members and supporters to transmit an “Urgent appeal to artists from Europe and the whole world” to contribute in the different forms their art and creativity can takes, to an international campaign on the theme :

“We will not betray you / I will not betray you”

“Ne soyons pas complices / Je ne serais pas complice”

This campaigns through different forms, visual, descriptive, musical, audio-visual, clothing (T-shirts, buttons etc.) is aim at awakening the consciences and also reinforce existing or future campaigns for the respect of peace and international laws. Individuals of any culture or condition will be the relays and amplifiers for campaigns against trades and labels of companies making profit from occupation, spoliation and also violation of international law and Human Rights in Palestine.

The ever-worsening dramatic situation - which is reported less and less objectively by the media - requires an urgent intervention of all the grassroots forces in EU countries in order to exert pressure on national and European elected representatives requiring them to denounce firmly and effectively the violations taking place in Occupied Palestine of international law, the Geneva Conventions, the Resolutions of the UN and the Security Council.
This campaign calls on artists to join with grassroots organizations already active and add their artistic contribution and their forms of expression and communication to this vast citizens’ movement which is developing to respond to this urgent and exceptional situation.

Artists will offer a new and diverse approach and an improved visibility whilst working side-by-side with NGOs, trade unions and religious movements already actively involved in the struggle for the respect of international law.

The theme of the campaign “We will not betray you / I will not betray you” encourages a personal involvement even greater than what has been done up to now and it is precisely the message behind this proposal which calls upon the personal responsibility and activity of each one of us.

The works created within this campaign will be disseminated freely by using copyleft or another Open Source license type, or a license allowing reproduction rights for any non-commercial use, and then will be freely reproduced in all formats and mediums, either by individuals or by organizations or companies, under the condition that the campaign visuals are not linked with any identifiable brand or logo present on the same medium. Commercial companies that wish to acquire the same rights may do so : the benefits will then be used to reinforce campaigns for peace and justice and also to thank the artists for their work.

Obviously the numerous existing campaigns run by different associations (against the Wall, against the settlements, for the liberation of prisoners, Caravan for international law etc.) will also benefit from the creativity and diversification of the artists who will respond to this call.

The Coordination of the Strasbourg Manifesto will be responsible, at least at first, for bringing together and disseminating the objects received (visuals, soundtracks, music scores etc.) and will ensure the ethical quality of the artistic objects based on the campaign criteria of copyleft.

The ethical hallmarks of the campaign and the shared digitalized artworks sent by the artists will be available from
http://eutopic.net/coordination

Artists may send their contribution to : appel_sbg(at)yahoo.fr

Organizations or individuals who will endorse the ethical hallmarks of the campaign (still in process) will be called to relay the appeal in their country or region, to freely create their own relays, tools, websites, etc. to contribute to the translation work and to joint the "scattered comitee" of the campaigh appel_sbg(at)yahoo.fr tel. (-33) (0)8 74 57 67 10.

Source : Comitee of the Coordination of the Strasbourg Manifesto