A festival of discrimination - funded by the EU

The Al-Quds Underground is an unconventional arts festival in the Old City of Jerusalem that was held on the first week of November with more than 150 performances including music, storytelling, theatre and dance. But when Gil Zohar, a reporter for The Jerusalem Post, showed up at the Damascus Gate to attend the show, to which he had received an invitation, he was asked by Jamal Gosch, the director of the a-Nuzha Hakawati Theater, where he lived. Zohar answered Jerusalem, in Arabic. When Jamal heard Gil's accent, he was told that Israelis were not welcome.

As Gil Zohar explained in his In Jerusalem article of Friday, November 6, the festival's Dutch artistic director Melijin Twaalfhoven told him, "Our team [of 12 Dutch activists and eight artists] had to promise that we would not allow peaceful Israelis to come."

The project was funded by the European Union through the Dutch charity Cordaid and the Alexandria-based Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean foundation for dialogue between cultures.

What dialogue between cultures is being promoted here? Perhaps the EU is more interested in dialogue between the Dutch and the Palestinians than in dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

Zohar explained that Al Quds Underground's "no Israeli" rule was part of a larger policy set by the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, the goal of which is to isolate Israel as South Africa was isolated in the days of apartheid.

A public arts festival in Jerusalem, funded by the European Union and respected foundations, which Israelis are banned from attending. And it is the Israelis who are accused of "apartheid."

The young, hip Dutch artist Twaalfhoven, no doubt specially flown in to direct this festival, is described as a visionary. He says, "I sometimes break through the boundaries between art and life. That is the core of my work."

I fail to see what boundary was being broken through here. It seems that, on the contrary, a barrier was being erected. And yet Twaalfhoven apparently has no problem with such blatant discrimination and divisiveness.

A project such as this should not be funded by the EU. Or by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for dialogue between cultures. Or by Cordaid, a Dutch international development organization with over 1000 partner organizations in 36 countries. According to its website, its focus is on emergency aid, poverty eradication, health and well-being, and entrepreneurship.

What kind of health and well being was being promoted at the arts festival?

And here is a description of the goals of the Anna Lindh Foundation:

The Foundation leads regional initiatives in the Euromed space and supports local activities carried out by organizations based across civil society which advocate for a better understanding among people, religions and beliefs, and champion human rights and democracy."

Which human right is being championed here? The right to discriminate? The right to segregate? The right to forego dialogue? What kind of understanding is being created?

According to its website, Anna Lindh, a Swedish minister who was assassinated in 2003, was known for her work in the Euro Med area, especially in areas of dialogue and mutual understanding.

The foundation professes that its goal is to fight extremism and encourage civil dialogue. How ironic that a foundation that espouses dialogue should fund a project that prohibits it.

I propose that we bombard both websites with requests that it ban this kind of funding.

http://www.euromedalex.org/contact

http://www.cordaid.nl/English/About_Cordaid/Index.aspx?mId=10182

We should also write the European Union.

http://europa.eu