Suzanne Vega

Please take the time to read!!

My mother introduced me to your music when I was very young, along with Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones and all her favourites,and I have always been a huge fan of yours. My mother introduced me to many things when I was very young and I was always a bit different because of that.Human rights was not a distant disconnected idea in our house. It was real and you did something about it.I think she probably regrets it now because her child went to Gaza and came back shattered and heartbroken I do not expect people to feel as strongly as I do because they didn't hear the bombs falling and feel the walls shaking,and they haven't seen the homes schools with hundreds of bullet holes or completely flattened, they haven't seen hospitals where premature babies die because there are not enough incubators and a child has never asked them why the world wants to kill him. I do however expect people to think about it, and to not just listen to what they are being told is happening. I think the world is waking up, slowly but surely, and one day people will look back and wonder how we let it go on for so long. I did not go on the recent Gaza Aid Flotilla, but I will be on the next flotilla. I am scared of what will happen to me but I am more scared of what will happen to them if I don't. The Palestinian civil society has asked the world to boycott Israel until it agrees to international law. There are not exceptions to these laws, Israel must be held accountable as much the Palestinians. But the root cause of all this violence is the brutal occupation by the Israeli state. The Palestinians who choose to resist the  violence they encounter by non-violent means should be supported completely for everyone's sake.The Israelis who call for the boycott of Israel must be supported completely because they too are now targets of the Israeli state. Hopefully if it is successful like the South African boycott was, then we will have a new way forward for helping to resolve wars. South African Apartheid was not resolved through boycott alone, there was huge violence. If we, the international community, can uphold international law, if we the normal people can take matters into our hands and be stronger then ever, then we can overcome it and evolve these method of peace. 

I do not know your background, I do not know you at all except for your music, but I do know you could not have seen the destruction and cruelty in Gaza and still ignore their calls for a boycott. You just wouldn't be able to do it. Just because you haven't witnessed it firsthand does not mean it is okay to pretend it's not happening. I ask you, with the chance you have before you right now, to pull out of your Israeli concerts until all people in that region are treated with respect and dignity according to their human rights and international law. If Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela look upon Palestine and see apartheid, see much worse then what they experienced in their homeland, then know that Tel Aviv has become Sun City. Please do not play there. Please do not ignore your fans. 

Hi all. As a South African who lived through the turbulent 70s, 80s and 90s I would just like to share a few thoughts about this. It is always interesting to see opinions about what happened in SA bandied around. I find it interesting to hear what people are saying, about the impact of international sanctions and artist refusing to "play Sun City."

I was born in 1970 and grew up under apartheid. What a lot of people seem to forget is that the system of apartheid was what my generation was brought up to believe was right. (Read the rest before you start shouting). We would sit in our churches and schools and our teachers and preachers would tell us that if there was no apartheid, the communist would overrun our country and destroy everything we loved. We were taught that God are on our side, that he would protect us, that he ordained apartheid to be right. Tell that to children and see the effect.

Our society was heavily censored. The government and their lackeys, Church and School, regulated what we could read, what we could see. We heard about sanctions but in our everyday life, it did not effect us. It did not take away our food or our security.

Then society started to change. It started in the late eighties. I went to University to study law…and I also discovered folk music, including Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman. In society, from within the white community, there came a drive to change our society to one that is just and equal. Granted, it was not as militant as the marches and protests in the black communities but taking into account that only white people had the vote, it was important as well.

The changes were reflected in music and art. In protest songs. The music and the art was like a mirror being held up in front of each one of us and we had to face the reality of what is going on in our country.

Then, when we turned 18 and started to vote, we voted for change.

So never underestimate the power of music and art. My question is: What will be of greater benefit, boycotting an artist or asking them to boycott a venue, risking losing their message of peace, equality and justice? Or allowing that person to spread their positive messages of reconciliation in  a country?

From experience I can tell you that an artist refusing to play in a country does not make that big a difference to the politicians in power. What is much more powerful is the urge and need of a society that realises that it has to change…and that is where music and art plays such a positive transformative rol.

Love and light