Below is an overview timeline of the campaign which birthed Punks Against Apartheid after Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine announced their intention of playing a concert in Tel Aviv on July 2nd, 2011. Pressure came from a variety of groups, but in the words of Electronic Intifada, “PAA was the major driving force behind the appeal to Biafra to cancel his gig.”
This timeline links to archived websites & statements to help give a fuller picture of the successful campaign and to serve historical memory. Enjoy!
June 7th – Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK (PSC) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) send private correspondence to Jello Biafra urging him to cancel his show in Tel Aviv; Jello does not respond to PACBI but posts a public letter on Facebook addressed to PSC
June 10th – PAA website launched; Electronic Intifada (EI) write-up on Jello’s plans not to cancel; ‘Jello Biafra: Please Don’t Play Apartheid Israel’ group, launched on Facebook
June 12th – PACBI releases public appeal to Jello (PAA post, EI article following day)
June 14th – Jello posts another response to calls for him to cancel his show on Facebook
June 16th – PAA Petition launches alongside open letter (EI article); ‘Dont Play Apartheid’ Facebook group begins to encourage its followers to sign PAA petition
June 21st – Jello makes his Facebook page private after getting inundated with criticism from fans, thereby blocking any further comments.
June 22nd – A letter is published by New Jewish Resistance by a Green Party member urging the party to drop Jello for violating the party’s pro-BDS platform
June 24th – Colin Kalmbacher, PAA petition signatory, writes a scathing piece: ‘Does Jello Biafra’s possible Tel Aviv show mark bedtime for punk rock relevancy?‘
June 24th-28th – Boots Riley of The Coup weighs in on Biafra’s refusal to heed the BDS call (published on July 14th, but interview done prior to June 29th cancellation — exact date unknown)
June 29th – PAA petition reaches 1,187 signatures, and Jello announces the cancellation of his Tel Aviv gig (EI article); PACBI releases a scathing statement ‘On BDS Bashers and their Search for Fig Leaves‘ drawing lessons from the wider context of normalisation & condemning the manipulation of naive artists by the Zionist state (EI article)
July 5th – PAA announces its intentions to stick around as a long-term organising network with the “It’s Bigger Than Jello” statement (EI article from July 8th)
July 13th – Ha’aretz publishes an interview with Jello in which he claims to still have mixed feelings about the cancellation
November 2nd – Jello’s publishes an extended diary of his travels in Palestine on Alternative Tentacles (abridged piece published on Al Jazeera on 27/02/2012), in which he finally concludes: “I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott.”
November 28th – SF Weekly retrospective interview with Jello on the whole experience
We hope that was enlightening for you! We will continue to add details/expand this timeline as more archival material surfaces.