Mar 11, 2011

#BDS: CulturEscapes Festival in Switzerland and the Moral Duty of BDS Today

"The neutral Switzerland is about to host a yearly Culturescapes festival. Every year the festival focuses on a different country. This year- the most successful for cultural boycott, yet- it just had to play into Desmond Tutu’s hands and focus on Israel.

A Word about Culture

Culture is a word I’ve been hearing a lot lately. Israel’s Brand Israel campaign is focusing on PR apartheid; Hiding it’s atrocities as best it can, and highlighting it’s “advantages”:
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 niches were identified in which Israel has a relative advantage… The 6 niches through which it is planned to promote Israel, in the world, are environment (with an emphases on desert agriculture); Science and technology (medicine, internet and hi-tech); Culture and art; Human variety and tradition; lifestyle and leisure culture; Tikun Olam [=Fixing the world] (support of populations of special needs).
The word “culture” originates from the Latin “cultura” (“to cultivate”). Unsurprisingly, the word was resurrected in the 18th and 19th century colonialist Europe. Sure enough, you can read all about it in this Wikipedia article, describing its racist, supremacist origins and its re-appropriation by non-white/western/males."
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