PACBI

Since 2004, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has organized with partners globally to end all forms of cultural and academic complicity with apartheid Israel as the most meaningful form of pressure to compel it to comply with international law. The Theater Workers for a Ceasefire PACBI Working Group has been advancing this movement in the theater since June 2024.

PACBI is a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, the largest Palestinian coalition. The PACBI call, which targets institutions not individuals, complicity and not identity, is endorsed by virtually all major Palestinian theaters and cultural groups.

Theater Workers for a Ceasefire understands that theater, as an art form, can only be a real site of possibility where violence, racism, and oppression end both in word and in deed. An endorsement of PACBI’s call is a meaningful act of solidarity that extends beyond other important strategies like representation. Cultural boycott is uniquely powerful due to its ability to expand the role that artists have in shaping society. Simply put, it is the most effective and material strategy of solidarity that artists can uphold, starting with ending complicity.

Click a button above to either join our Working Group, or start the process for your theatrical org to endorse the call.

Answers to common questions about PACBI and its application to the theatrical and performance industries below.

PACBI Explainer

1- What is PACBI?

PACBI stands for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Since 2004, PACBI has called for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions based on their complicity in implementing, whitewashing or justifying the grave human rights violations perpetrated by Israel’s regime of apartheid and illegal military occupation against Palestinians, including the restriction of their freedom of movement and freedom of expression. The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest legal authority, has recently condemned Israel’s military occupation and apartheid and earlier decided that Israel’s assault on Gaza plausibly violates the Genocide Convention.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) strategy, of which PACBI is a crucial component, is inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. It is a form of nonviolent direct action meant to end all forms of complicity with apartheid Israel as the most meaningful form of pressure to compel it to comply with international law. PACBI is basically asking all of us to do no harm to the Palestinian liberation struggle. PACBI is a founding member of the BDS National Committee, which is distinguished as drawing together the largest coalition of Palestinian unions, mass movements and organizations in Palestine and in exile. BDS targets complicity, not identity.

Endorsing orgs

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Endorsing orgs ☆

the after-image (New York)
Angel Rose Artist Collective (ARAC) (San Francisco)
Aye Defy (New York)
Basement Light Productions (New York)
GLYK Kolektiv (New York)
KALEIDOSPACE (New York)
National Queer Theater (New York)
No Exit Theater Collective (New York)
Panopoly Performance Laboratory (New York)
Radical Evolution (New York)
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (New York)
Applied Mechanics (Philadelphia)
Bearded Ladies Cabaret (Philadelphia)
Ninth Planet (Philadelphia)
Obvious Agency (Philadelphia)
Definitely Human Theatre (Poughkeepsie)
The Story Theatre (Chicago)
Physical Plastic (Los Angeles)
Sana Sana Productions (Los Angeles)
Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (FLACC)(San Francisco)
Bindlestiff (San Francisco)
Donkeysaddle Projects (Seattle)
Dunya Productions (Seattle)

2- What does a commitment to PACBI require?

Committing to PACBI, which targets institutions not individuals, means boycotting the following:

1) 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. This includes theaters, performing arts companies, orchestras, bands, etc. 

2) Israeli cultural products (ie, plays) that are state commissioned and have “political strings” attached. An example of this might be a piece of theater funded in order to serve Israel’s propaganda efforts, particularly its “Brand Israel” effort, but would not apply to cultural products receiving state funding that is not attached to political/propaganda conditions, as tax-paying citizens are entitled to such funding from the state to produce cultural works.

3) Cultural events or activities that are partially or fully sponsored by an official Israeli body, a complicit institution, or an Israel lobby group. For example, an international or regional theater festival that is sponsored or otherwise supported in part or in full by a complicit Israeli institution would be boycottable.

4) Normalization projects, which intentionally bring together Palestinians/Arabs on one hand and Israelis on the other who do not recognize the comprehensive, UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of refugees to return. The exception would be if the initiative is one of co-resistance to oppression, rather than deceptive co-existence under oppression, and if the Israeli party does recognize full Palestinian rights.

5) Fact-finding missions and study tours that are funded directly or indirectly by Israel, its complicit institutions, or its international lobby groups. While perhaps not as common in the theater, PACBI nonetheless notes that “balanced, independent fact-finding missions or study groups… are not boycottable, provided that no institutional link… of any sort is established with complicit Israeli institutions.”

PACBI defines complicity as follows: “As a general overriding rule, Israeli cultural institutions, unless proven otherwise, are complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights, whether through their silence or actual involvement in justifying, whitewashing or otherwise deliberately diverting attention from Israel’s violations of international law and human rights.”

For more information, including distinguishing non-boycottable characteristics, refer to the official BDS guidelines.

3- What is the significance of upholding PACBI in the theater?

Many organizational missions understand the theater as a space of possibility in a world fraught with many serious problems. In much the way that they are often called to clarify their commitments to this possibility through anti-racism statements, anti-sexual harassment policies, and land acknowledgements, committing to the PACBI call is a way of indicating that artistic possibility can only begin where occupational violence and oppression end both in word and in deed.

Artists have immense influence in shaping collective consciousness, but this cuts both ways: Israel attempts to normalize its criminal treatment of Palestinians through what it calls hasbara (propaganda). The theater must meet this effort head on and become an “Apartheid Free Zone.” We cannot wait for others to do this work for us.

4- Would my organization have to end collaborations with non-Israeli artists/orgs that don’t also uphold PACBI standards? What about space rentals, etc?

No, PACBI does not require “secondary boycotts.” Upholding the PACBI principles means that your organization in its original work, programming, etc must abide by the relevant BDS guidelines, but your (non-Israeli) collaborators do not need to be “vetted” for their sponsorship/funding, so long as they are not associated with Israel lobby efforts. PACBI is not designed to be a purity test. For instance, if a collaborator receives funding from a boycottable institution, you can continue working with them. That said, PACBI does encourage you to use your proximity to non-compliant organizations to set terms of collaboration which cut ties with apartheid regimes.

5- Our organization has agreed to uphold the PACBI guidelines, what comes next?

Amazing! Your next step is to write a statement to publicize your endorsement, contextualizing your organization's desire to make the commitment. This public showing strengthens the movement and provides safety in numbers for all. Publicization can be a section or page on your website, social media post(s), info in Playbills or other deliverables, etc. The Theater Workers for a Ceasefire PACBI Working Group has support resources to aid you with this, including statement examples, sample language, and more.

You are now also officially an example to others! You can contact us to continue the work of urging other organizational contacts in your network to endorse PACBI, or join our Working Group to take an even more active role. 

6- My theater is a small institution, and I'm nervous about our public endorsement standing alone.

PACBI firmly believes in the principle of safety in numbers, and our Working Group embodies that by helping coordinate individual organizations to make joint announcements in groups of 10, illustrating that this is a movement larger than any one organization of any size. Should your organization want to pursue endorsement, the PACBI Working Group can also provide additional support in the form of an Endorsement Support Kit with references of other organizations’ endorsements, statement authorship support, and more. 

While there is always the possibility of push back, we believe that signing on to PACBI is fully protected by the First Amendment. The PACBI Working Group is standing by as a thought partner during and after endorsement roll out should you have additional needs. If we’re not already in contact with you, reach out to us at theaterworkersforaceasefire@gmail.com For more resources, visit PAL Legal.

7- What are some examples of others who have committed to PACBI?

Tens of thousands of artists worldwide in all fields have endorsed the cultural boycott of Israel, including many high-profile artists, but there is no shortage in the grassroots art space as well. In fact, since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal assault on 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, Writers Against the War on Gaza has identified some 200 publishers, performance venues, gallaries, and journals that have taken up a pledge to uphold PACBI’s guidelines, and Art Workers for Palestine Scotland have announced at least 100 Scottish arts organizations are doing so. 

8- We already engage in other forms of protest, why does PACBI matter?

Everyone has a moral duty to do no harm to others and to strive to end complicity in gross human rights violations and systems of oppression. PACBI and BDS are first and foremost about ending international complicity in Israel’s decades-old system of oppression against Indigenous Palestinians. Also, to do our part to help realize a free Palestine, we need to utilize a diversity of tactics, building influence across all levels of society. In the face of an ongoing genocide, no stone can remain unturned. Yet tactics should always fit their context, and different tools are suited to different purposes. PACBI is uniquely powerful due to its ability to take up the role that artists and cultural workers have in shaping society. Simply put, it is the most effective strategy of solidarity that artists and cultural workers can uphold. Additional forms of protest can complement this proven effectiveness.

9- Isn’t it performative or pointless if we would never engage with Israeli-funded organizations in the first place?

Should a theater not have a firm stance on anti-racism simply because it has a Black employee? There is nothing performative about drawing a firm line around genocide and apartheid. On the contrary, upholding PACBI’s call is a powerful act of ending complicity, of meaningful solidarity, which isolates institutions complicit in occupation and colonialism. It finds its strength in numbers, which gives organizations of all kinds both power and responsibility to join the movement. And perhaps more than anything else, it is not performative because it is a direct call from the absolute majority of the Palestinian people. As in the struggle against apartheid South Africa, we take our solidarity lead from the authoritative, representative voices of the oppressed.

10- Our organization already promotes, employs, or programs Palestinian artists, why doesn't representation suffice?

Representation is an important strategy, but it is distinct from and cannot morally replace a do-no-harm commitment. As noted in the official PACBI guidelines, an endorsement of PACBI’s call is a pledge that your organization will both 1) refuse to program artistic initiatives funded or politically implicated with the State of Israel and its complicit institutions and lobby groups, and 2) not engage in normalization projects which “both sides” Israel’s unlawful system of oppression. Ending complicity in oppression is the most fundamental moral duty we all have.

While representation is crucial to affirm the vitality of Palestinian art and culture in general, a commitment to PACBI’s call ensures that art is allowed the environment to thrive through your organization’s firm declaration of the indignity of Israel’s occupation and apartheid, and its pledge to materially uphold PACBI guidelines. We hope you will continue programming Palestinian artists with the knowledge you have fortified your organization as a truly safe space for freedom of expression and as a space that strives to end complicity in gross human rights violations and international law.

11- Can I not program Israeli artists? Is this not antisemitic?

You absolutely can program and collaborate with Israeli artists. The only thing which must be boycotted are the specifics outlined in the official guidelines and summarized in Question No. 2 above. More importantly, it is both incorrect and dangerous – for Jews and Palestininans alike – to conflate antisemitism with criticism of a state or its ideology. PACBI and the BDS movement at large have an emphatic stance against all forms of racism including antisemitism, which is also expressed in its strategic principles such as “institutions, not individuals” and “complicity, not identity.” Many Jewish activists in the US and abroad are involved in PACBI/BDS campaigns, including Jewish theater workers in this very Working Group.

12- What about the risk of losing funding?

We empathize with the understanding that artistic funding is already precarious, but this is an ask from our Palestinian siblings struggling for their lives and basic human dignities. We must ask ourselves “if not now, then when?” At the same time, we have come to understand that the risk of loss is often overdrawn–that is, if the threat is not a bluff, it is generally not an amount which would do irreparable damage to the long-term viability of the organization. In that context, we might ask ourselves what the price tag is on stopping genocide. Again, strength in numbers, and a human rights picket line with many behind it is harder for immoral funders to bust.

13- Will endorsing the BDS/PACBI call damage our ability to win the “hearts of minds” of potential Israeli allies?

“BDS is a perfectly legitimate form of resistance,” said Itay Tiran, widely considered Israel's leading theatrical actor-director, in an interview with Haaretz.

A PACBI endorsement can actually be a great tool for initiating dialogue with potential Israeli allies. The PACBI guidelines explicitly differentiate between individual Israeli artists and Israeli institutions. Unlike the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa, a PACBI endorsement is not a blanket rejection of Israeli artists, and BDS invites “conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.” If an Israeli artist expresses concerns about PACBI, this may be an opportunity to find common ground with that artist around shared opposition to apartheid and military occupation and around upholding freedom, justice and equality for all based on international law. Whenever talking with artists about the PACBI endorsement, it’s always good to remind them that the PACBI campaign targets Israeli institutions that are actively complicit in apartheid, not individual Israeli artists.

14- How can Israeli institutions become non-boycottable? When does the boycott end?

From the official PACBI guidelines: “To end their collusion in Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid and become non-boycottable, Israeli cultural institutions must fulfill two basic conditions: a. Publicly recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law (including the three basic rights in the 2005 BDS Call) and, b. End all forms of complicity in violating Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law, including discriminatory policies and practices as well as diverse roles in whitewashing or justifying Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.”

15- How can I learn more?