‘Just a miss’: Sydney festival chair apologises after Israeli embassy sponsorship sparks boycott

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David Kirk admits he was unaware of deal until he noticed the Israeli government logo on the program in November

But he rejected the suggestion this amounted to either a failure in communication between management and the board, or a failure to recognise whether a risk assessment was needed.“And the next question becomes… are your normal processes fit for purpose in the current environment? And that’s something that we’re going to look into in the independent review that we have confirmed and absolutely committed to undertaking.

But neither he, the festival’s director Olivia Ansell, or anyone else would be resigning over the issue, Kirk said. “We are very sorry for the fact that we put artists in a situation where they felt compromised or have been pressurised, and have either been in a position where they’ve felt the need to withdraw their work or continue with their work [and] have been subjected to pretty serious social media pressure to withdraw.“We really regret that. We accept that we caused that and the review that we intend to undertake is focused on ensuring this ever happens again.

 

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“An Israeli embassy spokesperson told the Guardian on Wednesday that Ansell approached the embassy with the sponsorship proposal in early July.” Both things can’t be true.

This is a poor article that allows David Kirk to misrepresent the issue and pretend that he and the other directors were largely ignorant. His claims should have been tested, given he’s essentially excusing the failure of the board of directors to exercise proper oversight.

David Kirk and the sydney_festival Board are acting in bad faith and are being disingenuous - by refusing to reject the sponsorship. The festival continues to be complicit, and used to ‘artwash’ human rights abuses perpetrated by states or orgs implicated in human rights abuses.

They approached the embassy not the other way round! He's acting as if they stuffed the cash in his jacket pocket without him noticing.disgaceful lies.

Give back the money. Take a stand! FreePalestine

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