We, as undergraduate and graduate students of Washington University, write today in strong support of the courageous decision of the executive committee of the Universal Beatz event to disinvite the Israeli performer and cultural ambassador Marvin Casey. To be clear, our support for the disinvitation of Mr. Casey should not be misconstrued as blanket support for boycotting all Israelis and/or Israeli institutions. Mr. Casey was targeted for boycott not because of where he holds his citizenship, but because of his close association with the semi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel. While many may see the Jewish Agency as a purely benign Jewish organization, it is in fact deeply involved in supporting the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and Israel’s discriminatory policies. For example, on its Hebrew website, it proudly boasts of helping establish over two hundred illegal Jewish settlements—a polite euphemism for “colonies”—in the occupied Palestinian territories. And, it is also one of the driving organizations behind the new “Brand Israel” campaign, which seeks to whitewash Israel’s image by diverting attention from Israel’s occupation and war crimes and focusing it instead on Israel’s cultural, economic, and academic achievements. The boycott of Marvin Casey is a part of the larger international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel until it complies with international law. This movement seeks to nonviolently challenge Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its discriminatory policies, following in the venerable tradition of the BDS movement against South African Apartheid, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi’s boycott of British goods in the struggle for Indian independence. In supporting BDS, the signatories below do not seek to “delegitimize Israel” or its citizens, as many critics of BDS frequently charge. That being said, the BDS movement does indeed proudly seek to delegitimize Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and its discriminatory policies. In short, BDS is a movement for equality before the law and, as Omar Barghouti said in his talk last night at Harvard, “Equality never destroys people. It destroys a racist system.” Pursuant to these goals, the BDS movement also objects to pro-Israel propaganda (e.g. “Brand Israel” campaign) that seeks to whitewash Israel’s crimes and normalize its apartheid policies.

While we applaud the decision of the executive committee of Universal Beatz to disinvite Mr. Casey, it is unfortunate that it subsequently felt compelled to disinvite its scheduled Palestinian performers in a naïve attempt to remain politically neutral. In choosing to remain “nonpolitical” in the face of injustice, Universal Beatz necessarily made a deeply political decision. As the South African Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu—himself a strong supporter of BDS against Israel—has astutely pointed out: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

For our part, we proudly join the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and millions of others throughout the world in supporting the Palestinian call for BDS against the state of Israel until Israel complies with international law and respects Palestinian rights. Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, continued theft and colonization of Palestinian land, and apartheid policies not only violate numerous UN resolutions and World Court (ICJ) rulings, but are an affront to the noble values of peace, love, and mutual understanding that underpin the Jewish tradition. It is time to hold the state of Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians. It is time to say “no business as usual” so long as Israel maintains its suppressive status quo.