By this month (August) of 2025, Israel’s nearly 80-years long genocide against the people of Palestine might be at its worst–certainly, at a generational worst. Innocent people are being starved and murdered in the name of the continuation of a settler-colonial project—one that gets propagated through means of warfare and culture. Worry Noise Dirt Heat believes that all actions are political, and an arts organization always makes decisions that reveal and enact their values.
But what kind of decisions are being made by small arts organizations? There’re programming decisions, there’re platforming decisions–and then there’re decisions of messaging outside of the work that gets formally produced, the sort of discussion having/internet interaction that helps locate like-valued collaborators and sources of inspiration.
And to disengage from the distant language of institutional behavior, I (Lane, director of WNDH) am compelled–by my horror, my fury, and my innate knowledge that the lives of Palestinians are as vital and miraculous as the lives of any other human on this earth–to an understanding that the crimes of the state of Israel (and those who support/enable/invigorate those crimes) are unconscionable and so incorporated into our lives by zionist propaganda that they require an organized, adamant rebuke.
Worry Noise Dirt Heat has joined Theater Workers for a Ceasefire and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to participate in the organized action to refuse to be complicit, to reject–with the agency and power a small arts organization has–in as clear of terms as is possible the erasure of the Palestinian people–their lives, their culture, their home.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, or religion) or opinion. Mere affiliation of Israeli cultural workers to an Israeli cultural institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott. If, however, an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution, or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to “rebrand” itself, then their activities are subject to the institutional boycott the BDS movement is calling for.
WNDH joins PACBI in boycotting the following:
- Any collaborations or partnerships with Israeli cultural institutions that have not ended all forms of complicity in Israel’s regime of oppression and that have not endorsed the comprehensive rights of the Palestinian people under international law.
- Any Israeli cultural products that are state commissioned and serve the effort of manipulating the perception of the nationstate–such as plays, music that serve Israel’s propaganda efforts, particularly its “Brand Israel” effort.
- Cultural events or activities that are partially or fully sponsored by an official Israeli body, a complicit institution, or an Israel lobby group.
- Projects that seem to normalize the apartheid state of Israel, bringing together Palestinians/Arabs and Israelis without recognition of the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people including the right of refugees to return.
- Fact-finding missions and study tours funded directly or indirectly by Israel, its complicit institutions, or its international lobby groups.
The ethnonational apartheid state of Israel, needs to be challenged from every angle–by our complicit politicians and electeds in the United States, and by citizens and organizations of all sizes and makeups within it. WNDH is proud to join PACBI in the effort to make and collaborate on work that matches our values.