A significant victory for the Palestinian BDS and anti-normalization movement and the call for Justice has been scored as the organizers of the âOne Voiceâ concert in Jericho have cancelled the event.
âOne Voiceâ is a heavily funded initiative that aims to create acceptance among the Palestinian population of a two state solution even at the cost of a future in the walled in Bantustans. The initiative persistently avoids to take a stand on the internationally sanctioned Palestinian rights, including the right of return, Jerusalem and the borders of the Palestinian state, ironically even in the very press release they deny these claims. However, to camouflage their aims, One Voice has created different versions of some of their documentation in Arabic, English and Hebrew; the Arabic version being significantly closer to Palestinian rights than the other two.
The fraud and the real aims of the initiative have been fist publicly denounced by a PACBI press release ten days ago. The call to boycott the One Voice event has been readily taken up across Palestinian society and a wave of cancellation of Palestinian and international artists hit the organizers.
The event publicized as the âlargest simultaneous mobilization of Israelis & Palestinians in the history of the regionâ began to collapse in itself. People became aware of the fraud, the hundreds of thousands prospected were simply not to turn up. Finally even for the Palestinian Authority the event became a big defeat. Abu Mazen denied his involvement in the event that was made to back him up and to support the November summit in Annapolis unconditionally.
The âPeopleâs Summitâ â which tellingly was to consist in a concert where the people have the mere role of assisting a professionally organized show â was canceled citing dubious security reasons. When an initiative makes out of a press release a security threat and defines the spontaneous opposition of the people as an âabsolutist ideologyâ, the cancelling of their events is a true victory of the people. The apparent irrelevance of the simultaneously scheduled concerts in Tel Aviv and Washington shows how the initiative once again has targeted with their rethoric âto compromiseâ those that are under occupation and not the occupants and their allies.
The united response of the Palestinian people against the One Voice concert is not only a victory for the BDS and anti-normalization movement, it is an important sign for the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian people are well aware that negotiations and agreements are only then a step forward when they ensure the accomplishment of Palestinian rights. They are, after 60 years of struggle, politically astute enough not to endow the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US with a blanco check for negotiations over their land, right to return and future.
The Palestinian people have shown once again that they are not to be fooled and that they are determined to hold on to the prinicples of their struggle and to defend their rights inspite of the dramatic situation on the ground.