MEDIA RELEASE

SUNDAY MARCH 26TH 2006

Palestine Human Rights Campaign Deplores Jerusalem Quartet Support For the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Lands

On Saturday April 1, and for the second time in two years, the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) will be protesting at the Auckland Town Hall against the visit of the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet, whose members support Israel’s violent military occupation of Palestine.

PHRC had hoped that the Quartet would take a lead from the great Israeli musician, conductor Daniel Barenboim who, with other Jewish artists, authors, academics and professionals, has condemned the inhuman and racist Israeli policies against the Palestinian people. We have twice asked the Quartet if they were prepared to emulate Barenboim’s courageous bridge building with the Palestinians. So far, we have had no response.

When the Jerusalem Quartet play Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 8, which is ‘dedicated to the victims of racism and war’, we ask them to give a thought to the nearly 4000 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli military action in the last four years.

We call upon all those of conscience to join the growing global boycott of bilateral trade, cultural, academic and sporting relations with Israel until it respects basic Palestinian human rights and shows a willingness to abide by International Law the Geneva Conventions. UN Resolutions and the International Court of Justice ruling on the illegality of Israeli settlement colonies and its Apartheid Separation Wall in the occupied West Bank and Arab Jerusalem.

ENDS

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