INCUBUS and Lead Singer Brandon Boyd: We call on INCUBUS not to perform in Apartheid Israel

We have come to learn that Incubus is scheduled to perform in Ra'anana, Israel, on June 9th, 2015, and call on band members Brandon Boyd, Michael Einziger, José Pasillas, Ben Kenney and Chris Kilmore not perform in Apartheid Israel. We, global friends and allies of Palestine's historic struggle and injustice call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights.

For 67 years, Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed from their lands by the Israeli War Machine that continues to dehumanize them, humiliate them, imprison them, and build settlements, walls, borders, barriers, and checkpoints to cage them like animals, and isolate and restrict them of their human rights and freedoms. Gaza is under a perpetual siege and the West Bank and East Jerusalem under a brutal military occupation.

Less than 50 miles from where you will be performing in Ra'anana, last summer Israel carried out an abhorrent massacre against Palestinian civilians in Gaza -- within 50 days, at least 2,168 Palestinians were massacred, mostly in their homes. Entire extended families were wiped out when warplanes targeted and bombed house after house. Over 16,000 homes were either destroyed or severely damaged. 10,895 Palestinians were injured, and many of whom so severely that life will never be the same for them -- if they survive their injuries. Of the 2,168 massacred, roughly 500 were innocent children. This was a televised massacre, and the psychological trauma is incalculable. At least 380,000 people have been displaced as Israel has deliberately targeted people’s homes and infrastructure. Palestinian and international organisations have accused Israel of committing war crimes. In the words of the top UN official for Palestinian refugees Pierre Krähenbühl: “Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”

The Israeli siege of Gaza is one of the most brutal manifestations of the Israeli occupation. The latest attack is part of an ongoing policy of collective punishment and killing practiced by Israel against the people of Gaza, a violation of international law that Israel appears determined to continue.

By performing in Ra'anana, Incubus would be sending a morally troubling message of approval — or even a reward for – Israel’s grave violations of human rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem at a time when Israel is facing increasing condemnation for adopting a policy of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

If you cannot stand with all of us now, please at least respect our efforts to fight for the lives, futures, freedoms, and dignity of the Palestinian people. We call on you, in your good conscience, not to perform in Apartheid Israel.