Poems For and From Palestine
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In solidarity with the people of Palestine—who continue to suffer unimaginable violence at the hands of the government of Israel—UDP formally commits to the Palestinian international call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and adheres to the guidelines of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
We are joining many other poetry and arts organizations, and are grateful to those who have led the way.
In adherence to PACBI, UDP specifically commits to:
- Boycott any cultural product commissioned by an official Israeli body;
- Boycott any cultural product funded by an official Israeli body, even if not commissioned;
- Boycott any cultural event that is partially or fully sponsored or funded by an official Israeli body;
- Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration, or joint projects with Israeli institutions, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to/from these institutions;
- Refrain from hosting or circulating any events or cultural products operating under the auspices of “normalization,” or which advance a false symmetry between oppressed and oppressor;
- Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
To end their collusion in Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, and thereby become non-boycottable, Israeli cultural institutions must fulfill two basic conditions:
1. Publicly recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law (including the three basic rights in the 2005 BDS Call) and
2. End all forms of complicity in violating Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law, including discriminatory policies and practices as well as diverse roles in whitewashing or justifying Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.
We denounce rising Islamophobia in the US. We denounce anti-Semitism. We denounce the false and dangerous conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This is not a boycott of Israeli writers and artists; PACBI and BDS are boycotts of an apartheid state that are modeled off of the historic academic boycott in South Africa.
We believe it is the responsibility of writers, artists, and publishers to imagine new, liberatory futures and we are committed to working with those who uphold this belief. If you too are considering endorsing PACBI or have questions about UDP’s decision—which took many weeks of intense discussion—please reach out to office@uglyducklingpresse.org.
More information at https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi.