In my opinion, the rights of the oppressed black South African majority would have superseded the supposed "rights" of arts companies to attempt to promote and normalise apartheid South Africa. The issue with Israeli dance company Batsheva is, in its essence, identical. The call for a boycott of Israel is not simply a protest over policy (as one might protest against the US/British invasion of Iraq, or Russia's wars against Chechnya). Rather, it is a challenge to the fundamental basis of an ethnically-defined state which is built upon ethnic cleansing and the wholesale dispossession, and continuous oppression, of the Palestinian Arab population.
Someone named Mark Brown, who is a theatre and dance critic and lectures at the University of Strathclyde.
Besides he being factually and historically misinformed about Israel, the 'crimes' he notes are those of the Arabs are perpetuated against the Jewish community that lived in the country for centuries, during the Mandate period and afterwards.
Will he recognise the truth of that?
Will he reach the correct conclusions?
Or can we doubt his willingness to consider another narrative and admit error?
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