Support musicians under attack for their song about Israeli Apartheid

Action : Support musicians under attack for their song about Israeli Apartheid

BIAC is distributing the following alert from Students Against Israeli Apartheid Carleton and encourages all to take action on this important alert to support the Three Little Birds, musicians under attack for their support of justice in Palestine. View BIAC’s letter to CTV on the Three Little Birds.

Three Little Birds under attack for song their song ’Apartheid’

Dear friends and allies,

A local Ottawa musical group, Three Little Birds, is under attack for their support of the fight against Israeli Apartheid and they need your help.

HonestReportingCanada, a staunchly pro-Israel media organization is attacking Three Little Birds for their courage to sing about Israeli Apartheid, and CTV, for allowing musicians on their program who choose to sing about such a topic.

On June 18, CTV Ottawa invited the Three Little Birds to talk about their new album and perform a song in advance of their Ottawa Jazzfest performance. The song they chose to sing is entitled “Apartheid," which is a powerful song detailing Carleton University’s president’s support for the apartheid policies of Israel. As a result, HonestReportingCanada, which claims to have 25,000 subscribers to its email list, sent out an email blast to all of its subscribers entitled “CTV Defends Giving Band Airtime to Slur Israel as an “Apartheid” State.” The e-mail attacks Three Little Birds and urges people to email the CTV Regional Vice President to pressure him not to allow musicians on the program who may criticize the actions of the state of Israel through the use of the term "apartheid."

See the CTV segment here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9haR4zyPqig

See the HonestReportingCanada article here : http://www.honestreporting.ca/news_article_name/CTVDefendsGivingBandAirtimetoSlurIsraelasanApartheidState7162012.aspx

In response, the Three Little Birds published a powerful statement of their own, responding to the attempted censorship of their music and of CTV, and explaining why they chose to write the song “Apartheid” (full statement reprinted below).

In response to this alert, BIAC sent the following letter to CTV :

Dear Mr. Gray,

As advocates for Palestinian human rights, we thank you for broadcasting the Three Little Birds and respecting their song choice on CTV. The Three Little Birds are excellent musicians with a firm commitment to social justice - including Indigenous rights and self determination, the tarsands and the environment, and standing against gender violence. It is a tribute to their inclusive and universal views of social justice expressed through music that their vision of resisting oppression also includes the rights of Palestinians.

Numerous Palestinian and international voices have testified to the apartheid nature of the Israeli state. The crime of apartheid, in international law, is defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime."

Among many other examples of Israeli apartheid, Palestinian refugees are denied their right to return ; the West Bank and Gaza Strip are subject to military occupation, land confiscation, home demolitions, and closure ; and Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied equal access to jobs, education and state resources.

And as more people around the world have recognized that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid (Israeli Apartheid Week included events in hundreds of locations around the world last year, five years after its 2006 inception in Toronto), and joined the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until its apartheid policies end, the phrase "Israeli apartheid" has been subject to threats, attempted and actual censorship across Canada. Organizers of events and activities in support of Palestinian human rights have been singled out by politicians and lobby groups in an attempt to silence dissenting voices.

We would like to congratulate CTV for recognizing that music is not merely entertainment - it often illustrates important issues and speaks out against injustice. Three Little Birds’ song "Apartheid" was in fact inspired by an attempt to censor a student program on Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University and silence voices in solidarity with Palestine. Thank you for refusing to concede to the demands of those who seek to silence critical voices and continuing to provide a venue for the expression of opinions on subjects of major importance.

We also encourage you to provide space for such voices in CTV’s news programming and invite guests with a strong critique of Israeli apartheid and Canadian foreign policy, and committed advocates for Palestinian human rights to be heard and join the political debate on the airwaves as well.

Thank you again for showcasing the Three Little Birds, talented musicians of insight and conscience.

Sincerely,

Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign - Vancouver

What you can do...
1) Write a letter to CTV
HonestReportingCanada undoubtedly has hundreds of people emailing CTV to get it to self-censor and disallow performers who may criticize the state of Israel. CTV’s initial response to HonestReportingCanada was firm and principled :

“That they [Three Little Birds] chose to make a political statement during their performance is not uncommon for bands and also not something we are overly concerned about. Our viewers have become accustomed to what I’m sure you’re also keenly aware—creating controversy is what musicians often do.”

Please email CTV Regional Vice-President Richard Gray (sample below):Richard.Gray@bellmedia.ca to let him know how much we appreciate their decision to feature an Ottawa band unafraid to tackle important social justice issues and ask that they refuse to concede to HonestReportingCanada’s attempted censorship. Please BCC saia.carleton@gmail.com with the letters you send.

2) Support the Three Little Birds
The Three Little Birds are an incredibly talented group that produces powerful music while singing about important social justice issues including : Israeli apartheid, Indigenous sovereignty, the Tar Sands, and gender-based violence. Undoubtedly, HonestReportingCanada was attempting to smear them with their article in an effort to silence them and alienate them from their community. Let’s show HonestReportingCanada that this plan backfired, and that the Three Little Birds are actually gaining more support because of their principled stance !

Please consider joining them on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/threelittlebirdstheband), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/tlbtheband), and buying their music online at : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/threelittlebirds

Please note that their music will be available on iTunes shortly.

Check out their schedule to see if you can catch one of their shows, and if you’re outside of Ottawa, consider contacting them to play in your city by contacting them at : info@threelittlebirdstheband.com

Sample Email
To : Richard.Gray@bellmedia.ca
BCC : saia.carleton@gmail.com

Dear Mr. Gray,

Thank you for broadcasting the Three Little Birds and respecting their song choice on CTV programming. Music is a time-honoured way of bringing attention to important issues and speaking out against injustice. I would like congratulate CTV on recognizing this and refusing to concede to the demands of those who seek to silence voices of dissent. It is critical that we continue to support freedom of speech, providing venues for the voicing of opinions, be they controversial or not.

Thank you again for showcasing such talented and inspiring Ottawa musicians !

Sincerely,

Three Little Birds respond to HonestReportingCanada
Re : CTV Defends Giving Band Airtime to Slur Israel as an “Apartheid” State (July 16, 2012)
(http://www.honestreporting.ca/news_article_name/CTVDefendsGivingBandAirtimetoSlurIsraelasanApartheidState7162012.aspx)

To whom it may concern/interest,

We’d like to thank HonestReportingCanada for writing about our TV clip on CTV. They attempted to censor CTV’s airing of our song “Apartheid,” but it now has almost 2,000 views. We sincerely thank HonestReportingCanada for the free promotion.

Our song "Apartheid," was originally written in response to the banning of a poster at Carleton University that depicted the bombardment of Gaza in 2008-2009, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians. A year later, we learned that the Carleton University pension fund invests in and profits from the very weaponry that is depicted in the poster (breakdown on the attached image). Three Little Birds is deeply disturbed that the university pension fund profited from the Gaza bombings and continues to profit from the weaponry and other infrastructure of occupation that oppress Palestinian people. The song is our reaction to attempted censorship. With great poetic irony, HonestReportingCanada is currently asking its subscribers to censor CTV coverage of music and politics by calling upon CTV executives to never again present anyone on the air who criticizes the current actions of the state of Israel through use of the term "apartheid" like we did with our song.

We don’t use the term "Apartheid" lightly. It is the current actions of the state of Israel that necessitated the use of the term. According to the definition of apartheid under international law, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, and the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa Report, Israel is currently operating as an apartheid state.

The Wall that Israel is building in the West Bank, which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, has annexed Palestinian territory, appropriated Palestinian water resources, and destroyed thousands of orchards, homes and communities. Furthermore, Israel currently has over 500 checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, which restrict the movement of virtually all Palestinians living there, and subjects them to violence and humiliation on a daily basis. Additionally, Palestinians living within the boundaries of Israel proper have their citizenship restricted, as they are legally discriminated against. (Check out link to the Adalah Inequity Report : http://www.adalah.org/upfiles/2011/Adalah_The_Inequality_Report_March_2011.pdf). This institutionalized racism has led people such as Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid activist to state in his Guardian article, "Apartheid in the Holy Land," that "I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land ; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when the young white police officers prevented us from moving about." Israel, as any other country or individual, must be held accountable for its actions, and we are therefore proud to stand against apartheid, and with the struggle for freedom, justice, and equality for all those living in Israel and Palestine.

In light of HonestReportingCanada’s attempted censorship of the term "Israeli apartheid," we find their slogan to "promote fairness" and "ensure accuracy," laughable. While we understand that we are little more than a "fringe musical group" next to the magnitude that is HonestReportingCanada, we nonetheless suggest that they stop promoting censorship and ensure the accuracy of their own information. For example, they assert that Gay Pride Toronto has banned the term “apartheid.” This is false, and only requires the simple use of a search engine to confirm this. Or just follow this link !
(http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/pride/article/827793--pride-toronto-reverses-israeli-apartheid-ban)

Thanks again for the free promotion, HonestReportingCanada !

We invite our supporters to send their own thoughts to CTV’s Regional Vice-President Richard Gray at the following address:Richard.Gray@bellmedia.ca. Let’s ensure that CTV knows that we want to hear more about this topic !

Warmly,
Three Little Birds

For more information about these issues, we recommend visiting :

Our Sources :
Russel Tribunal on Palestine : http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report from December 2011 :http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ochaopt_atlas_barrier_affecting_palestinians_december2011.pdf
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_MovementandAccess_FactSheet_September_2011.pdf
International Court of Justice decision : http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&ca
B’Tselem facts about the Wall : http://www.btselem.org/separation_barrier
B’Tselem info on checkpoints : http://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement/checkpoints_and_forbidden_roads
Checkpoint Watch (Israeli NGO) : http://www.machsomwatch.org/en/daily-reports/checkpoints
Adalah- The Inequity Report : http://www.adalah.org/upfile /2011/Adalah_The_Inequality_Report_March_2011.pdf
Desmond Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land" -http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/29/comment
Israel and Apartheid : A fair comparison ?http://rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison
Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa Report, "Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid ? : A re-assessment of Isreal’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law," 2009.

Background Info :
http://www.ochaopt.org/
http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
http://www.adalah.org/eng
http://www.stopthewall.org/
http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/18/israelwest-bank-separate-and-unequal
http://www.pacbi.org/
www.bdsmovement.net

— 
Charlotte L. Kates charlotte.kates@gmail.com

__,_._,___