MORE than 200 Scottish cultural organisations have backed a boycott of Israel, which campaigners say represents “by far the highest proportional uptake” of anywhere in the world.
On Monday, Art Workers for Palestine Scotland confirmed that more than 200 Scottish organisations had given their backing to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
PACBI dates back to 2004. It asks artists and academics to sign up to boycott Israeli institutions in protest of the country’s policies toward Palestinians, which experts including Amnesty International and B’Tselem say constitutes genocide.
In Scotland, organisations including the Scottish Artists Union, BUZZCUT, Atlas Arts, Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Timespan, Arika, and the V&A Dundee Young People's Collective have all pledged to support PACBI.
The PACBI campaign said that crossing the 200 threshold meant Scotland had “by far the highest proportional uptake of our call in any country on earth”.
The Scottish Government under SNP leader John Swinney is also considering a state boycott of Israel, as The National revealed last week, after it was challenged by Green MSP Ross Greer to follow up on its description of Israel’s actions as genocide.
A spokesperson from Art Workers for Palestine Scotland campaign said: “Over the last two years our campaign for the cultural boycott of Israel has garnered over 200 endorsements from across the length and breadth of Scotland, sending a clear message to our cultural ‘leaders’ and politicians: that Scottish culture stands proudly and unequivocally with the Palestinian people.
“Israel’s longstanding use of a ‘culture’ as a way to disguise its brutal regime of genocide and ethnic cleansing will no longer go unchallenged. We stand for real decolonisation in the arts and recognise the vital role of artists and art workers to use our platform and our skills for liberation.
“The backing of PACBI in Scotland represents the highest proportional uptake of PACBI anywhere in the world and is a testament to the radical currents running through Scottish culture, which was also at the forefront of the cultural boycott of Apartheid South Africa.
“We urge the Scottish Government to end its complicity and to use its full devolved power to back the Greer proposal and institute legislation that effectively boycotts the pariah state of Israel, which is in breach of international law, as Apartheid South Africa was before it.
“We especially demand the Scottish Government formerly backs a full sporting and cultural boycott of Israel.”
