Apartheid in Palestine by Ghada Ageel

Author:Ghada Ageel [Ghada Ageel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781772121018
Publisher: The University of Alberta Press

Genocide Is a Culture

The culture of genocide is served well by the mental, perceptual manifestations of segregation or apartheid. No one really sees Palestinians (or Arabs, as they are commonly referred to in Jewish Israeli society) because the denial of a self-determined, collective identity is central to the culture. An additional enabling layer is provided by the creative output of the culture when it serves as a “state branding” agent. As I’ve claimed elsewhere,

Along with the “standard” “nation branding”…known as Brand Israel, much of Israel’s propaganda is based on the blurring of the lines between the individual and the state…As a BDS activist, whose main focus is cultural boycott, I’ve come up against a very common Israeli claim (individuals, small business, and government officials) that “culture has nothing to do with politics.” Most commonly it comes in the form of a puzzled “rhetorical” question: “What does culture have to do with politics?!” As if asking this question closes the discussion, because it’s so obvious that art, music, books, films, theatre, and dance are a pure form of entertainment that have no intellectual, political, anthropological value. As if cultural products aren’t bought and sold as commodities and status indicators.[25]

In its current form, the state use of culture by Israel conflates and harnesses Zionism and capitalism. Most of the cultural artifacts promoted, showcased, or even produced by state authorities either altogether ignore (and help obscure) political problems and conflicts, including issues that, on the face of it, have nothing to do with Arabs, or uphold and reinforce the Zionist ethos, mythos, and pathos.

This means that most cultural workers in Israel take part (often without noticing) in the erasure and the facilitation of genocide. Nevertheless, with regard to Israeli artists and performers and their appearances outside of Israel, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, known as PACBI, points out that “a cultural product’s content or artistic merit is not relevant in determining whether or not it is boycottable.”[26] In keeping with this, cultural boycott activities outside of Israel are based on, and expose, two forms of state involvement in Israeli culture. The first form includes cultural projects in the more “classical” genres, such as theatre and dance companies, and classical music, often funded, sponsored and exported (PR included) by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Ministry of Culture, and ostensibly aimed at “exposing Israeli work in many theatres around the world.”[27] This form of state involvement takes a revealing turn, in light of a second, explicitly instrumental form of state-exported culture: in quite a few cases, state contracts with Israeli artists cover their trips abroad as long as “the service Provider [the cultural worker] undertakes to mention the name of the Ministry and/or Israeli representation in…[specified] countries in any publication concerning the services provided by him, in Israel and abroad…The service provider is aware that the purpose of ordering services from him is to promote the policy interests of the

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