��������

PARIS: From the music, film to publishing industries, growing numbers of Western artists are calling for a cultural boycott of Israel over the Gaza war, hoping to emulate the success of the apartheid-era blockade of South Africa.
With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions, musicians, celebrities and writers are hoping to build public pressure for more action.
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that, globally, we’re at a tipping point,” British actor Khalid Abdalla (“The Kite Runner,” “The Crown“) told AFP after signing a petition calling for a boycott of some Israeli cinema bodies.
The open letter from Film Workers for Palestine has gathered thousands of signatories, including Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, who have pledged to cut ties with any Israeli institutions “implicated in genocide.”
“The avalanche is happening now, and it’s across spheres. It’s not just in the film worker sphere,” Abdalla added during an interview on Friday.
At this week’s Emmy Awards, winner after winner, from Javier Bardem to “Hacks” actor Hannah Einbinder, spoke about Gaza, echoing similar statements at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
On Thursday, British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack announced they were joining a music collective called “No Music for Genocide” that will see artists try to block the streaming of their songs in Israel.
Elsewhere, Israel faces being boycotted at the Eurovision song contest, authors have signed open letters, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is leading a push to exclude the country from sports events.
Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov announced last week at a concert in Britain that he would no longer perform in his home country.
“I think we are seeing a situation which is comparable to the boycott movement against apartheid South Africa,” Hakan Thorn, a Swedish academic at the University of Gothenburg who wrote a book on the South Africa boycott movement.
“There was definitely a shift in the spring of this year when the world saw the images of the famine in Gaza,” added the sociologist.

“A�Գپ�-���𳾾��پ�����”

The international boycott of South Africa’s white supremacist government began in earnest in the early 1960s after a massacre of black protesters by police in the Sharpeville township.
It culminated with artists and sports teams refusing to play there, with boycott busters such as Queen or Frank Sinatra facing widespread public criticism.
Thorn says many public figures were reluctant to speak out about the Gaza war, which was sparked by the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas which left 1,219 people dead in Israel, most of them civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed more than 65,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
“The history of the Holocaust and criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement for being antisemitic has been a serious obstacle to a broader mobilization against what Israel is doing right now,” explained Thorn.
A campaign to boycott Israel, known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, began 20 years ago over the country’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
The Israeli government accuses its supporters of being antisemitic and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frequently labels critics as “Hamas sympathizers.”
David Feldman, who heads the Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck College at the University of London, said such statements have created “a lack of confidence over what the boundaries of antisemitism actually are.”
“Any eruption of antisemitism is concerning, but any attempt right now to identify the movement to boycott Israel with antisemitism is missing the point,” he told AFP.
“It is a vehicle of protest against Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the ongoing murder of people.”

Apartheid lessons 

Although the anti-apartheid movement is referenced by today’s campaigners against the Gaza war, history provides some sobering lessons for them.
After the start of the South Africa boycott movement, it took 30 years before the regime fell, exposing the limits of international pressure campaigns.
“By the early 1970s, it’s true to say that boycott was the defining principle of a self-identified global anti-apartheid movement, but the movement on its own was not enough,” Feldman, who wrote a book about boycotts, added.
The real pain was caused by the gradual asphyxiation of the South African economy as companies and banks withdrew under pressure, while the end of the Cold War sharply increased the country’s isolation.
Inside Israel, many artists worry about the consequences of the boycott movement.
Israeli screenwriter Hagai Levi (“Scenes from a Marriage,” “The Affair“) told AFP earlier this month that “90 percent of people in the artistic community” were against the war.
“They’re struggling, and boycotting them is actually weakening them.”

BOSTON/WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration escalated its campaign against Harvard University on Friday, placing new restrictions on the Ivy League school’s ability to access federal funds for student aid, citing concerns about the “financial position” of the oldest and richest university in the United States.
The Department of Education said it had placed Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard on “heightened cash monitoring” status, a shift from the typical practice that will force it to use its own funds to disburse federal student aid before drawing down funds from the department.
Trump has cracked down on universities and threatened to cut federal funding over a range of issues like pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The Education Department is also seeking to have Harvard post a letter of credit for $36 million to ensure its financial obligations are met. In a letter, it said recent events raised concerns about Harvard’s finances, citing its decision to issue bonds and conduct layoffs amid its conflict with the White House.
The Education Department said Harvard was at risk of losing access to all federal student aid funding by not complying with requests for records from its Office of Civil Rights, which a separate letter warned may pursue an enforcement action.
That office has been reviewing whether Harvard still considers race in its undergraduate admissions process even after the US Supreme Court in 2023 ruled that affirmative action practices that schools relied on to boost enrollment of racial minorities were unlawful.
Harvard did not respond to requests for comment.
The government in July settled its federal investigations with Columbia University, which agreed to pay more than $220 million to the government, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million to support local workforce development. Both accepted certain government demands.
The Trump administration has been seeking a settlement with Harvard. Trump has said Harvard should pay “nothing less than $500 million.”
The government had separately proposed settling its probe into the University of California, Los Angeles through a $1 billion payment from the university. California Governor Gavin Newsom called that offer an extortion attempt. The government froze nearly $600 million in funding for UCLA, the university said in August.

Protest rules at UCLA amid Trump crackdown
UCLA unveiled new protest rules on Friday that formalized interim policies put in place in September 2024. UCLA experienced large demonstrations last year and a violent attack by a pro-Israeli mob on a pro-Palestinian encampment.
The policies unveiled on Friday at UCLA include measures that restrict unauthorized encampments, ban masks or face coverings for those who violate rules and make outdoor spaces off-limits for demonstrations that are not pre-approved.
UCLA says it will allow pre-approved overnight events and outlined some designated areas for public expression for which prior approval was not needed. Policy violations could lead to disciplinary action or even arrest, UCLA said.
The University of California system, of which UCLA is a part, has called this period one of the gravest threats in the institution’s history.
Harvard, which has a $53 billion endowment, has not suggested it was on the verge of financial catastrophe but it has cut spending after Trump’s administration launched a campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at it and other universities, which the president says are gripped by “radical left” ideologies.
In particular Trump has alleged universities allowed antisemitism during last year’s campus protests. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Harvard in July said the combined impact of recent federal actions on its budget could approach $1 billion annually. It has sued over some of those actions, leading a judge this month to rule the administration had unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in research grants awarded to Harvard.