LALIT Communique: Positive Denouement for “Mystik Festivals” Concert

12.12.2024

Following the public Communiqué of the organizer of the Mystik Festival, Mr. P. Nobeen that, inter alia, reads: 

“The good news is that we are already working towards hosting a new edition of Mystik Festivals in mid-2025: with a completely new concept, featuring a fresh lineup of incredible international and local artists” (our emphasis)

LALIT announces that we are pleased that future concerts will be organized around “a fresh lineup” of artists. 

We put on record that our call was for this. We thus accept his good will, based on this public communique. 

In addition, Mr. P. Nobeen telephoned a spokesperson of LALIT, one of the member organizations of Solidarite Morisyin Ar Lepep Palestinn, and, inter alia, assured her that he does not intend, in future, to invite anyone from a country under boycott. This, too, we welcome.

For the record, LALIT reminds readers of our site that Israel is under boycott because of its persistent illegal colonial occupation of Palestine, its enforcement of the crime against humanity called Apartheid, and its on-going genocide against the people of Palestine, in particular in Gaza. We note also that the Mauritian State has consistently, over the entire time of its existence as an independent State, taken a stand against the occupation and against Israel’s flaunting of international law, and we call on the new Government to issue guidelines now for hotels and other events managers, just like Mr. Nobeen is doing, to respect the international cultural and academic boycott against the State of Israel. It is the least the new Government can do, and the least investors in this domain can do.

We hope that the Hotel Maritim will in future take the same precautionary measures as Mr. Nobeen, and that the bosses’ organization, AHRIM will, itself, issue guidance as to how Mauritian hotels can respect the boycott being organized under the exceptional times of a genocide being perpetrated by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people. This would be a proactive contribution. 

Hotel owners and managers, like events organizers, need to bear in mind that Israeli artists, who take a public stand against what their government is doing, who are not army conscripts or military reservists (which most people under 40 years old unfortunately are), and who do not receive Israeli state money or Israeli Embassy backing can be invited. 

This is the specific proviso to the boycott tradition carefully worked out by the “Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS Palestine)” movement, which we form part of (1)

The aim of a proper boycott is to counter the Israeli State’s specific policy of using artists in order to give Israel the reputation of being an ordinary state, even as it acts unlawfully and massacres the very people that under international law it is obliged to care for i.e. those under its military occupation. 

Israel’s specific policy is to use performing artists in their military strategy. The Israeli Ministry of Hasbara (or Propaganda), organizes this. For example, artists receiving Israeli State support are contractually bound “to promote the policy interests of the State of Israel via culture and art, including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel”, and at the same time contractually bound never to present themselves as an “emissary” of the State of Israel.(2) This double-bind means it takes a tiny bit of hard work for any hotel or events manager to invite or host an Israeli artist. You have to make this contribution of not inviting any Israeli artists who does not openly take a stand against the Israeli State’s unlawful occupation, Apartheid and its genocide against the people of Palestine; or who is a reservist in the military; or who is getting support from the Israeli State or its Embassy. 

Since the Republic of Mauritius cannot contribute by proposing that the S.M.F. enforce a “No Fly Zone” to protect the people of Palestine who have no army at all to protect them, the very least the Mauritian State and the people living in Mauritius, including the bosses, can do is to isolate Israel. That is the point of a boycott. That is how it worked against South African Apartheid, and that is how it will finally work against Israel.

In the meantime, we must all work to protect freedom of speech and of expression for all artists, as well as academic freedom, at the same time as we isolate a state that is not controllable by other means.

 Alain Ah Vee and Lindsey Collen,

For LALIT

(1) There is a need for some public clarification. The original BDS Mauritius, part of BDS Palestine’s international movement, was formally constituted by a number of organizations and individuals in 2014. It was later, by a formal decision, subsumed into “Solidarite Morisyin Ar Lepep Palestinn” (SOMALP) in 2020, with the stated aim of broadening the scope of the campaign to include the anti-apartheid aspect of the solidarity and to echo the name of the dynamic and ultimately victorious SOMAAP (Solidarite Morisyin Anti-Aparteid) which contributed the Mauritian bit to ending Apartheid in South Africa. At the time, we informed the co-ordinating body, BDS Palestine of this change. Now, in 2023-24, a new “BDS” has appeared, and must be distinguished from us. We invited them to join SOMALP, but they seem not interested. This means it is a group that we are not part of, but which, unfortunately, has caused confusion by using the same initials “BDS Mauritius”. They say their initials stand for “Boycott, Deter and Shame”. We, by contrast, do not wish to shame people, but to isolate Israel. We repeat that this new “BDS Mauritius” was set up recently and is not part of SOMALP. 

SOMALP’s member organizations in 2024 are:

Mauritius Labour Congress (MLC)

Confederation des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publiques et Privees (CTSPP)

All Workers’ Federation

Federation of Parastatal Bodies unions

Confederation of General Trade unions

Federation of Civil Service and Other unions

Centre Idriss Goomany Centre

LALIT

Association des Consommateurs de l’ile Maurice

Chagos Refugees Group

Ledikasyon pu Travayer

and we have some 60 enrolled individual supporting members, including well-known individuals like Former President Cassam Uteem, former Attorney General Jean-Claude Bibi to name just two.

(2) Here are two “give-away” clauses from the Contract artists sign with the Israeli government (quoted from reputable Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, 29 July 2008). This contract may be dated, and we can expect the conditions imposed by the Israeli State to be more draconian by now, as the State of Israel has become hostage to its Fascist Ministers and political base of settlers:

"Contract between the State of Israel, via the Foreign Ministry, Division for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, … (hereinafter, 'the Ministry'), on the one hand, and Mr./Ms./Company/Organization ... (hereinafter, 'the service provider' [in realm of culture or science]), on the other hand."

Paragraph 12 reads:

" …  The service provider [artist] is aware that the purpose of [the Israeli state] ordering services from him [artist] is to promote the policy interests of the State of Israel via culture and art, including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel." [sic]

Paragraph 13 then adds an element of secrecy to the contract: 

"The service provider [artist] will not present himself as an agent, emissary and/or representative of the Ministry." (sic) 

Paragraph 15 becomes a bit threatening:

"The Ministry is entitled to terminate this contract, or a part thereof, immediately and at the Ministry's sole discretion, if the service provider does not provide the Ministry with the services and/or does not fulfill his obligations under this contract and/or does not provide the services and/or fulfill his obligations to the Ministry's full satisfaction, …”