Defend the right to free speech and artistic expression
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
For Immediate Release 8 March, 2009
Van Thanh Rudd & the Economy of Movement- a piece of Palestine:
Defend the right to artistic expression & freedom of speech!
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Melbourne unequivocally defends and supports the right of visual artist, Van Thanh Rudd, to freedom of artistic expression and speech.
Van’s work, Economy of Movement – A piece of Palestine, which has been displayed as part of the Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance: Propositions towards urban (r)evolution exhibition at Flinders St Station has been subject to censorship this week.
The art work which depicts a rock and includes two informational statements outlining the resistance to Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the role that French companies Alstom and Veolia (whose Australian transport operations operate under the name of Connex) are playing in facilitating the illegal Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem by building illegal settlement infrastructure.
Veolia and Alstom are part of the Citypass consortium which won the 2002 tender project amounting to 500 million Euros. The light rail will service illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and is a serious breach of international law, in particular article 49 and article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which both Israel and Australia are signatories.
Article 49 states:
“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
Article 53 states:
“Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.
The transfer of any Israeli civilian population into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, whether it be East Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, is illegal under international law, as is the forcible confiscation and destruction of Palestinian private property by Israel as an occupying power.
The light rail being built on stolen Palestinian land by Veolia (Connex) and Alstrom will assist with the transfer of the Israeli civilian population into the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, directly supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and its surrounds.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) supports the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (www.bdsmovement.net ). The campaign initiated in 2005 by almost 200 Palestinian civil society organisation calls for the boycotting of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and institutions and for governments to place sanctions on Israel by breaking military, political, cultural and economic ties until the country abides by international law.
In Australia, Palestine solidarity activists from a coalition of Palestine solidarity organisations, including the Palestine Solidarity Camaign, over the next months will be demanding that various state governments around Australia dump their contracts with Connex.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign also calls on the Australian Rudd government to break all political, economic, cultural and military ties with Israel, until it abides by its international obligations.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign congratulates Van Thanh Rudd for his ongoing support of human rights in both Palestine and elsewhere and applauds the Platform Artists Group for their courageous support of an artist’s freedom of artistic expression and speech.
For more information:
Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com
www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net
Palestine Solidarity Campaign: who we are …
PSC is a grassroots, activist based group which does not adhere to any particular ideology and is not affiliated with any political or religious grouping. PSC includes people from a diversity of cultural and political backgrounds, as well as religious affiliations and seeks to collaborate with all groups and individuals who are committed to our goal of ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and who support justice for the Palestinian people.