ARTISTS AGAINST APARTHEID in Australia oppose Apartheid in Australia, elsewhere and in Apartheid Israel
Apartheid Australia.
The question in the 1967 Referendum was “Do you approve the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled 'An Act to alter the Constitution' so as to omit certain words relating to the people of the Aboriginal race in any state so that Aboriginals are to be counted in reckoning the population?” The overwhelming 90.77% support for the ‘Yes’ vote gave the Federal Government a clear mandate to implement policies to benefit Aboriginal people. The other aspect of the constitutional change, enabling of Aboriginal people to be counted in population statistics, has led to clearer comparisons of the desperate state of Aboriginal health. For details see “Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_referendum,_1967_%28Aboriginals%29 .
The 1975 Racial Discrimination Act outlawed racial discrimination in Australia (e.g. race-based entry to Australia under the so-called white Australia Policy) (see: Racial Discrimination Act 1975: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Discrimination_Act_1975 ).
However the Liberal-National Party Coalition and Labor both supported race-based legislation that excluded Northern Territory Indigenous Australians from the protection of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act, thereby returning Australia to de jure status as an Apartheid state in addition to Australia’s de facto Apartheid state status because of the appalling living conditions of indigenous Australians and the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide in which 9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably every year out of an Aboriginal population of 0.5 million due to gross, White Australian-imposed deprivation (see “Northern Territory National Emergency Response”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory_National_Emergency_Response ) .
The pro-war, human rights-violating Australian Labor Government extended this gross violation of human rights by also excluding from the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act Afghan refugees fleeing the Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion war-related deaths 5.6 million; see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ and “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ) and Tamils fleeing the Tamil Genocide (50,000 Tamils butchered in the last year alone; see “The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka” by Professor Francis A. Boyle: http://www.claritypress.com/Boyle-Tamil.html ).
Artists Against Apartheid “in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world, including in Australia. We stand in solidarity with the call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We actively support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel” (see: http://artistsagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/ ).
Artists Against Apartheid: “As Artists aware of our colonial history, we recognise the continued dispossession of the Indigenous people of this Land [Australia]. We also recognise and support the human rights of the Indigenous people of Palestine to live on their land with dignity – free from military occupation and the brutality of the Israeli Apartheid system. Israel’s Apartheid regime over the Palestinian people is a system that separates and discriminates against the Indigenous people. It is a system that is institutionalised by laws and military force. Artists Against Apartheid in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world, including in Australia. We stand in solidarity with the call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We actively support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel… The Cultural Boycott of Israel, as a key component of the global BDS Movement, shall be maintained until Israel meets its moral and legal obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination by:
Ending its Occupation and colonisation of all Palestinian lands and dismantling the Apartheid Wall
Recognising the fundamental rights of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194
We call on all artists in Australia to support the vital BDS movement – a direct response by world citizens to the failure of so-called international diplomacy. It is no longer possible to remain silent. To be silent is to be complicit.
Artists Against Apartheid is a positive and non-violent movement that creatively works for justice in Palestine.” [1].
[1]. Artists Against Apartheid: http://artistsagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/ .