Palestinian artists, cultural groups and human rights supporters have welcomed the Australian-British singer Natalie Imbruglia’s cancellation of her planned March performance in Tel Aviv and thanked her for deciding to be “on the right side of history, on the side of the oppressed”.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which is part of the Palestinian leadership of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, said: “Just as conscientious artists refused to entertain apartheid South Africa, Natalie Imbruglia is refraining from lending her name to cover up Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.”
Imbruglia has supported various justice efforts, from women’s rights through the Northern Rivers Community Foundation to Oxfam.
The decision to cancel he show comes as Israel escalates its ethnic cleansing. In defiance of the recent UN Security Council resolution 2334, which reiterates that all Israeli settlements are a “flagrant violation” of international law, Israel has intensified its building of settlements.
It has recently passed a law that would retroactively legitimise its land grab of private Palestinian lands. Israel has also escalated its forced displacements of Palestinian communities in the Naqab (Negev), Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, drawing condemnation from across the world.
Read the full article at Green Left Weekly.