Tell the Barbican to cancel its collaboration with the Israeli embassy

The Barbican is hosting the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West event on 5 February 2023, which serves as a whitewash for the Israeli state’s apartheid control over the Palestinian people. The Jerusalem East & West Orchestra receives support from both the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sports and Jerusalem Municipality, and this specific concert is a collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in the UK.

Hosting an event with such direct involvement from Israeli state bodies will make the Barbican complicit in covering up Israel’s state-sponsored violence and political repression.

Tell the Barbican to cancel this event and pledge not to collaborate with the apartheid state of Israel in the future.

Barbican Communications Manager - Music

Barbican Head of Communications

Barbican CEO

Barbican EDI

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I’m writing to express my shock and deep concern about the Barbican’s hosting of the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West event on 5 February 2023, which serves as a whitewash for the Israeli state’s apartheid control over the Palestinian people. Hosting an event with such direct involvement from Israeli state bodies will make the Barbican complicit in covering up Israel’s state-sponsored violence and political repression and would go against the Barbican’s policy on being “apolitical” and vision of presenting “arts without boundaries.”
On its website, the Jerusalem East & West Orchestra lists support from both the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sports and Jerusalem Municipality, and this specific concert is a collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in the UK. It’s hard to see how direct collaboration with a state is “apolitical” - something which the Barbican lists as a principle of its programming and partnerships.
Israeli state-funded cultural events like this one form part of a strategy to project a false image of Israel as a diverse and pluralistic democracy, hiding the reality of its illegal occupation and imposition of a system of apartheid.  The event description makes this purpose clear. The event is described as “reflecting the diversity of Israeli society” – without mentioning that Palestinians are subjected to a system of institutionalised racial discrimination that amounts to the crime against humanity of apartheid, as noted by human rights monitoring organisations Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B'Tselem.
Whatever the intention of the individual musicians, the event hides Israel’s brutal and egregious human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Israel’s oppressive regime is exemplified by its policies and practises in occupied Jerusalem – where Palestinians face systematic forcible displacement and militarised repression, in service of Israel’s aims to force them out of the city. Jerusalem itself is marked by one of the world’s most infamous boundaries—an Apartheid Wall, dotted with checkpoints that choke Palestinian freedom of movement. The wall has been ruled as illegal by the International Court of Justice, but the Israeli state, which sponsors this event, is continuing to build this horrific boundary. Partnering with such a government makes a mockery of the Barbican’s vision of “arts without boundaries.”
Palestinians, including Palestinian artists and cultural workers, are resisting Israel’s colonial violence against them. Public events that obscure Israel’s oppressive practices and attempt to create a false perception of equality in the public’s consciousness harm their struggle for their rights.
Israel has recently inaugurated a new government, called by the BBC “the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.” It includes ministers who were elected on platforms boasting plans to deepen apartheid and calculated violence against Palestinians, as well as ministers who have made their names as openly anti-LGBTQ+. This is the same government co-sponsoring the event in question. As this new far-right Israeli government gears up to continue attacks on Palestinians – it is incumbent on all venues not to engage with attempts to whitewash Israel’s human rights record.
The Barbican has a record as a space where those fighting for their rights can be heard. Just last year, the Barbican hosted the Human Rights Watch film festival, which amplified the voices of human rights defenders across the world. The Barbican must keep this commitment to promote, not silence, the voices of those resisting injustice.
The Barbican should not be complicit in state-funded attempts to obscure human rights abuses. The Barbican must refuse to let the event go ahead, and pledge not to collaborate with Israel's apartheid regime.

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Tell the Barbican to cancel its collaboration with the Israeli embassy