CAPE TOWN (Dispatches) – Africa’s biggest public art festival will no longer accept sponsorship from the Zionist regime, following a string of withdrawals from their events this week.
Baz-Art, the organization that convenes the annual International Public Arts Festival (IPAF) in Cape Town, said that following consultations with local civil society groups, it “decided to discontinue the sponsorship agreement with the Israeli embassy in South Africa, including a refund of all contributions”.
Pressure had been building on the organization following the withdrawal of at least four participants from the event’s National Public Arts Conference - which runs parallel to the street art festival.
Business and Arts South Africa, a public benefit organization, also withdrew its support for the event, while community members from the iconic and historic District Six neighborhood in Cape Town said if Baz-Art failed to end its relationship with the Zionist regime, they would not allow the organization to paint murals in their area, the South African Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) coalition said.
“In South Africa, we know from our own struggle against apartheid brutality how international BDS contributed to supporting our resistance and bringing down the apartheid regime. For anyone that truly cares about human rights, dignity and freedom, there can be no collaboration with an apartheid regime,” the South African BDS coalition said in a statement.