Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Opening of Exhibit in Brussels on Tel Aviv's History Delayed Due to Boycott Pressure

Ynetnews.com, February 10, 2009 - An exhibit titled "The White City Tel Aviv", which was set to open in Brussels next week, has been postponed by the Belgian organizers in response to IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The hosts – the board of directors of the International Centre for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape (CIVA) - informed the Tel Aviv Municipality three days ago of their decision to postpone the exhibit due to their belief that it would be "better appreciated at a different time."

"We received protests that were based on the claims that Israeli culture should be boycotted until the Israeli government changes its policy," the board said in a letter. On the other hand, the letter continued, there were those who demanded that the exhibition be held in order to portray Israel's history and image.

"We heard these stances and are convinced that both are valid, but we've decided to prevent any kind of debate on the objective of holding this exhibit," the letter stated....

A copy of the letter from CIVA (in French) is available at the link.

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