30th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement – support group | Czech Republic
Prominent figures of Czech political and public life call on the organizers of Pilsen 2015 to step down as hosts of the Days of Jerusalem festival.
The Days of Jerusalem festival is taking place in the city of Pilsen as part of the European Capital of Culture 2015 initiative this year. It will occur between the 18th and 21st of June and its subsequent activities will echo throughout Prague, on the 22nd and 23rd of June. In response, civil initiatives engaged in dealing with the issue of occupation of Palestine wrote an open letter to the organizers of Pilsen 2015, requesting that they step down as hosts of this festival.
Journalist and formerly incarcerated dissident, Petr Uhl; former foreign minister and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Jan Kavan; vice-chairman of the Green Movement, Tomáš Tožička; politician and journalist, Matěj Stropnický; philosopher and political activist, Ivan Bartoš; politician and professor, Šádí Shanaáh; poet and author, Milan Kohout, and many others upheld the call with their signatures, which reads, in part:
“The Days of Jerusalem event is part of a political strategy through which the State of Israel seeks to secure legitimation of its illegal annexation of Jerusalem. This is further supported by the fact that several Israeli government agencies will partake in the festival’s organization. Thus, via the festival Days of Jerusalem, the Czech public is misinformed and deliberately dragged into a highly controversial political game in which your event – Pilsen 2015 – is nothing more than another playing field.”
“…The organizers of Pilsen 2015 have an obligation to the Czech public. The public has the right to be well informed and not be manipulated by one side. Other countries in Europe are aware of this obligation.”
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Full letter available here.
Background information here.
Contacts for media:
Zdeněk Jehlička (Initiative Not in Our Name! – For a Just Peace in the Middle East)
tel. no.: +420 603 369 574, email: nenasimjmenem@gmail.com | ism-czech.org
Vojtěch Srnka
tel. no.: +420 775 129 722, email: vojtech.srnka@gmail.com