Open Letter from BRICUP to Elton John

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
19 May, 2010

Dear Elton John:

It's funny how people can be close friends, and yet react so differently to
things. You're apparently close friends with Elvis Costello – so close you
hosted his wedding to Diana Krall at your `castle' in Windsor. After just three
weeks of people appealing to Elvis Costello not to perform in Israel, he's
decided not to go. (His thoughtful statement is at
http://www.elviscostello.com/news/it-is-after-cosiderable- contemplation/44.)

But months down the line from our first letter to you, with hundreds, if not
thousands, of your fans appealing to you to cancel your gig in Tel Aviv
(including Canadian film-maker John Greyson at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HSClZbhB5g), you remain silent. Of course you
have every right to do so. But we're wondering what this silence means.

Does it mean you think the dirty business of Israeli colonialism and ethnic
cleansing has nothing to do with you? That you can play for the officers and
conscripts and secret service people who will make up much of your audience in
Tel Aviv without giving them the stamp of your approval? You will offer them a
few hours' respite from administering beatings and torture and land-theft and
house- demolition and sieges and destroying wells and denying sick people access
to hospital – and the simple fact of your presence will tell them that all this
cruel business, which they conduct daily, is okay with you.

Or does your silence mean you think it's more important to stand in solidarity
with gays in Israel than with the Palestinians? But what about Palestinian gays?
Israel has a record of sending those who've sought refuge in Israel back to the
Occupied Territories. So much for Israel being `gay-friendly'. Palestinian gay
rights activist Haneen Maikey (an Israeli citizen) says, `It's really pathetic
that the Israeli state has nothing besides gay rights to promote its liberal
image. Ridiculous, and in a sense hilarious, because there are no gay rights in
Israel'. To the Israeli state she says, `Stop speaking in my name. If you want
to do me a favour, stop bombing my friends, end your occupation, and leave me to
rebuild my community'.

Sir Elton! – maybe you've decided, in your generous way, that you'll donate the
proceeds of your Tel Aviv concert to the Global Fund, or another AIDS charity
(and of course good deeds cannot be spoken about, so you don't announce it). But
our appeal to you isn't about money. It's about the meaning of actions. Elvis
Costello understood exactly that `simply having your name added to a concert
schedule may be interpreted as a political act...and it may be assumed that one
has no mind for the suffering of the innocent'.

To his great credit, he decided that `a silence in music is sometimes better
than adding to the static'. We are asking to you to abandon the silence of your
apparent indifference to our appeal, and that of thousands of your fans, and
join Elvis Costello in his musical silence. Please don't play in Israel.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Haim Bresheeth
Mike Cushman
Professor Steven Rose
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead

Please reply to: BRICUP, BM BRICUP, London WC1N3XX
email: bricup@bricup.org.uk www.bricup.org.uk
19 May, 2010