Alicia Keys is scheduled to perfom in Tel Aviv on July 4. An international campaign calling on the talented and conscious Keys to cancel her concert in Apartheid Israel is gaining momentum.
Earlier today, Palestinian-American leaders and community activists delivered a petition signed by over 12,000 to Alicia Keys’ nonproft charity in New York City. The day before, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of New Mexico released a video (see above) “inspired by the Palestinian women who every day nonviolently resist the illegal occupation of their land,” the video description says.
Below is a press release detailing the recent efforts to show Keys why she must cancel her show:
Rights Advocates Deliver 12,000 Signature Petition Asking Alicia Keys to Cancel Israel Show
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2013, New York, NY – A delegation of Palestinian-Americans, representing coalitions of over 500 US organizations, delivered a petition today signed by over 12,000 people to the New York City office of Alicia Keys’ nonprofit fighting HIV/AIDS, Keep a Child Alive, calling on Keys to cancel her July 4th concert in Israel. The petition asked Keys “to stand on the side of justice and cancel her gig in Tel Aviv, Israel,” and to “join us now in the cultural boycott of Israel, and help stop entertaining apartheid. The petition’s 12,000+ plus signers outnumber the audience expected to attend her Tel Aviv show. [Read more...]





Irony and dilemma concerning Newseum’s decision to reverse plan to commemorate slain Palestinian journalists
The Newseum, a Washington, DC news museum, announced plans last week to memorialize 84 journalists killed in the line of duty in 2012. Included among the list of honored journalists were Mahmoud Al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who worked for Al-Aqsa TV when an Israeli air strike on November 20, 2012, killed them and at least four others. Al-Kumi and Salama were covering the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip when a missile hit their vehicle.
Al-Aqsa TV is the state television network for the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
The Newseum’s announcement drew harsh criticism from conservative and pro-Israel groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which issued a nasty statement belittling the lives of these journalists by calling their employer “not a legitimate news organization”.
On Monday, the Newseum unveiled the memorial. Instead of 84 names, it included only 82. The Newseum caved to the pressure and Al-Kumi and Salama’s names had been removed.
In a shoddy attempt at balanced news coverage of the Newseum controversy, a concept seemingly unfamiliar to Fox News, Fox decided to make its own judgment call by labeling the two Palestinian journalists as “operatives” working for Hamas. Ironically, the article headline begins with the question, “Terrorists or journalists?” as if Fox was actually going to approach the issue appropriately, tactfully, accurately, and intelligently. [Read more...]