Wednesday, 1O January 2001

To the directors of Womadelaide Festival 2001:

I, the undersigned, Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese music composer, declare my refusal to participate in the Womadelaide Festival 2001 in salute of our people's victory in Southern Lebanon and in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their long and courageous struggle for statehood and independence.

I take this stance based on my recent knowledge, through the Internet, of the participation in the Womadelaide Festival 2001 of Israeli singer Chava Alberstein, who comes supported by the Embassy of Israel in Australia and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I emphatically declare my refusal to participate alongside Israeli singer Chava Alberstein as a testimony against the arrogance of Israel and its relentless massacre and bombing of the people of Lebanon and Palestine.

Perhaps my refusal to participate will inspire Chava Alberstein to question, investigate, and understand how Zionism has tried to obliterate the name and people of Palestine by attempting to falsify its history and alter its geography, using the oppressive tools of colonialism, old and new.

Through my music, I have always strived to join my voice to those who stand for the defense of human rights, a voice among voices for whom aesthetics express collective consciousness and oppressed humanity worldwide, past and present.

Marcel Khalife

Translated from the Arabic by Fatmé Sharafeddine Hassan.