All children are miracles
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 29 June 2016 14:15
- Written by editor
Dear PAOV,
Rock legend Carlos Santana says he believes all children are miracles, but an organization he founded with that very premise literally locked the door, shut the blinds, and turned off the phones on Palestinian children yesterday.
Share this video today to remind Carlos Santana that Palestinian children are miracles too.
On Tuesday, members of the Middle East Children’s Alliance and JVP- Bay Area attempted to deliver our petition signed by 25,000 people urging musician Carlos Santana to respect Palestinian human rights and cancel his upcoming concert in Tel Aviv.
If you watched the delivery on our livestream, you saw how the delegation, led by local Palestinian families with children, was ignored by the staff of Santana’s Milagro Foundation, which he founded in 1998 and is devoted to helping "underserved and vulnerable children around the world."
Staff at the office had not responded to several requests for an appointment, refused to open the door when the delegation arrived, and closed the blinds.
The Milagro Foundation refused to receive the message that people of conscience all over the world are sharing: Santana should not lend his reputation and credibility to the fundamentally unequal and unjust Israeli government.
According to Defense for Children International-Palestine, Israeli soldiers and police have killed more than 1,800 Palestinian children since 2000. Every year the Israeli military arrests and prosecutes around 700 Palestinian children. That means over 11,000 children forced through military courts since 2004, when Palestinians issued the call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel modeled after the similar campaign targeting apartheid South Africa.
Hundreds of artists from around the world have have refused to perform in Israel until Palestinian human rights are respected. Lauryn Hill, Roger Waters, Boots Riley, Talib Kweli, Elvis Costello, Sinéad O'Connor and many more.
In 2010, Santana himself heeded the same call and canceled a show.
It gives me no pleasure to state the obvious: nothing on the ground has gotten better since 2010. So we’re working within an international coalition demanding he cancel again. Palestinian children are facing the same, and ever worsening, oppression by the Israeli government. If Santana’s foundation will lock the door to their voices, we have to amplify their call even more.
Join the campaign: share this video today!
Onward,
Stefanie Fox
Deputy Director
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national membership organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all the people of Israel and Palestine. Become a JVP Member today.
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