High-profile figures join Sydney Festival boycott over Israeli funding screams out the Sydney Morning Herald headline.
When you read the report, these are the high profile figures named:
- Indigenous rapper Barkaa
- Dance ensemble Bindi Bosses
- Arab Theatre Studio
- Bankstown Poetry Slam
- “Journalist” Amy McQuire
- Artist Khaled Sabsabi
- “Comedian” Nazeem Hussein
I am sure many of you will join me in asking “Who the hell are any of these people?”
It gets even more comical. This is the introductory paragraph to the report:
The number of artists and ensembles boycotting the 2022 Sydney Festival over the festival’s decision to take $20,000 in funding from the Israeli embassy has now blown out to eight…
Woah! Eight whole people? This has gotten out of hand!
Here are the acts at the festival. There are well over 100, and the number of artists and performers in the hundreds. Yet these eight virtue-signaling acts and Israel-haters are somehow supposed to be significant?
As mentioned above, these no-names are boycotting because the festival is taking $20,000 in funding from the Israeli embassy – funding to be used to stage a Sydney Opera House performance by the Sydney Dance Company, of work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin. He is more well-known than these boycotters and, ironically, someone they might even appreciate.
“Ohad Naharin has been a political activist for years within Israel, and never hesitated to be very vocal about the situation in the West Bank and the consequences of the occupation. His deep commitment to the freedom of the human spirit is reflected in his actions as well as artistic creations.”
