RAMALLAH: A week after Israel's 8 day military offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a petition has been released calling on American musician Stevie Wonder to cancel his participation in an event for the Israeli Defense Forces in Los Angeles on December 6th. The annual gala of the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF) is hosting the event with the intention of cultivating support and raising money for the Israeli military forces and more than a thousand people are projected to attend. According to Israeli news site YNetnews.com, the FIDF is a 31-year-old NGO that raises millions of dollars for Israel's military each year; a fundraising event in New York raised 26 million dollars in February. Activists argue that the funds raised at such events directly assist Israel in sustaining an internationally illegal military occupation and institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians. In the 1980s, Wonder was an outspoken opponent of South African apartheid, and his music was banned under the apartheid regime after he dedicated an Oscar-winning song to Nelson Mandela, then imprisoned for planning to overthrow the country's government. Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists argue that participating in Israeli cultural events is tantamount to direct complicity in the occupation, segregation, and exile of Palestinians. During Israel's military offensive, brought to an end by an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire last Wednesday, airstrikes killed over 160 Palestinians and injured well over a thousand. NGOs and human rights monitors claim that the majority of casualties were civilians, an alarming amount of which were children and women. The full text of the petition is below:
