The Musicians’ Union of Ireland (MUI), a SIPTU affiliate, has welcomed guidance from Palestinian performing arts organisations calling on cultural unions to defend freedom of expression and take meaningful action in solidarity with Palestinian artists.
Issued by the Palestinian Performing Arts Network, the guidance asks unions to oppose censorship of cultural workers and to refuse work with cultural institutions, companies, events and projects that are verifiably complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and its underlying apartheid regime.
SIPTU Sector Organiser Robbie Purfield said: “Palestinian musicians, performers and cultural workers are asking their international colleagues to listen to them and act. The MUI stands with them in defending their freedom to create, perform and speak about what is happening to their communities.
“Solidarity also means respecting the choices artists make about where they work. Cultural workers should be able to support a boycott of complicit institutions without facing censorship or damage to their livelihoods.”
He added: “As a union, we are proud of the stand made by Aaron Rowe and Beoga in withdrawing from Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore. Artists should be free to speak out for Palestinian rights without fearing that it will cost them their work. Their decision shows the power of cultural workers standing together against censorship.”
The MUI reaffirmed its longstanding support for the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel’s complicit cultural institutions. Its members passed a motion in 2017 urging a boycott of cultural activities funded by the Israeli state, while making an exception for events explicitly supporting equal rights and justice for Palestinians.
The MUI has also supported the Palestinian-led campaign for the boycott of Eurovision, beginning in 2019. Many MUI members have also personally supported the cultural boycott.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) stated: “The Palestinian call for the cultural boycott is a call to recognise the ethical duty to not harm the Palestinian struggle for liberation struggle and to refuse complicity in Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial apartheid. It targets complicity, not identity, and institutions, not individuals.”
The MUI will share the Palestinian Performing Arts Network’s guidance with members and continue to support Palestinian performers’ rights to freedom of expression and association.