When Ita Skoblinski learned that a favorite dance studio in Montreal was boycotting a movement style that originated in Israel, she wasn’t sure what to think.
An Israeli designer who moved to Canada a decade ago, she was sympathetic to efforts to add pressure against the Israeli government over its war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. But she was also increasingly uncomfortable with how opposition to the war was manifesting itself where she lived.
“I find myself in a very weird and confused situation in which something that I worked a big chunk of my life towards, awareness to the Palestinian people and their plight, is now happening,” Skoblinski said in an interview. “But it’s also coming at this unexpected price of hatred … hatred towards Jews, and a lot of misunderstanding and lack of context.”
So Skoblinski took to social media, inviting her Facebook followers to weigh in on her reaction to the announcement by Studio 303 that it would boycott Israel and drop Gaga dance classes, which she had enjoyed.
“As someone who stands against the routine killing of children, the starvation of civilians, and public declarations of ethnic cleansing … As someone who left Israel, in part, because of its moral collapse … As someone who stands in full solidarity with the civilians of Gaza, I still feel, as a person and as a dancer (and I believe we are all dancers), that this boycott might be missing the mark,” she wrote. “I’m open to being convinced otherwise.”
The response was stark. In comments, some accused the studio of “virtue signaling” while another called the boycott a “principled decision.”
Soon, the conversation had ricocheted out of Skoblinski’s circle to include pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian voices beyond Montreal — and to highlight how an escalation of anti-Israel sentiment in the dance world is pitting pro-Palestinian voices against some of Israel’s most vociferous internal critics.
A boycott of 'Brand Israel'
Studio 303 announced on May 21 that it was joining the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. It said it was no longer programming classes such as Gaga Movement that are associated with the “Brand Israel” strategy, an official Israeli public relations campaign launched in 2005 to highlight the nation’s cultural exports.
“By refusing to collaborate with the Israeli government or its funding agencies, and by boycotting all cultural and academic products that normalize the State of Israel, we affirm our commitment to Palestinian self-determination,” the studio announced on its website.
Founded in 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics, PACBI is one of the founders of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS. It calls for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, including those that might be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
PACBI has recently called for boycotts of “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary about Israeli demolitions in a Palestinian West Bank village, and Standing Together, a prominent Israeli-Palestinian anti-occupation groups, saying that any collaboration with Israelis reflects “normalization” of Israel.
The group and its affiliates have long protested touring by Batsheva Dance Company, a prominent Israeli company that draws some funding from the Israeli government. In February, with Batsheva on another U.S. tour, one of the affiliates, Dancers for Palestine, ramped up its campaign against the company. It also drew attention in an essay to Batsheva’s ties with Gaga Movement, a dance form created by Batsheva’s house choreographer Ohad Naharin.
“Many in the dance field are instinctively against boycotting any movement form,” Dancers for Palestine wrote in a February essay. “But the BDS boycott only targets official Gaga classes — which are financially connected to Gaga Movement Ltd. — not any aesthetic principles dancers might associate with the form.”
Choreographer Ohad Naharin instructs his students at the Batsheva Dance Company’s studio in the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv, on June 10, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)Both Batsheva and Naharin are left-wing and have advocated against the war and in favor of the Palestinian cause. Last year, Israel’s right-wing culture minister asked for a review of Batsheva’s government funding after the company included a Palestinian flag on stage; it had also recently called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. And Naharin has said he supports the goals of the Israel boycott.
“If the act of cancellation would have helped the Palestinians’ cause I would boycott my own show,” he said after an Irish company canceled a performance of one of his works last year.
He added, “It is obvious that this cancellation does nothing to help reduce the suffering of people in our region or to reduce anger and frustration of the people in Ireland over the wrongdoing of the Israeli government and army in the Gaza Strip.”
The Dancers for Palestine essay acknowledged Naharin’s politics, saying that his dismissal of the boycott’s effectiveness undercut any solidarity he might have expressed. “Naharin has expressed sympathy for Palestinian suffering but undermines Palestinian political agency when he repeatedly misrepresents the BDS movement,” the essay said.
Studio 303 shared the essay in response to a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Its announcement post also used a Dancers for Palestine image that highlighted nine other studios across the United States and Canada that recently joined PACBI.
Studio 303 said it had not seen Skoblinski’s Facebook post but would “take the time necessary to address any questions from participants of Studio 303 if addressed to us.”
For her part, Skoblinski said she was glad she had written the post in the first place. “It feels like a very small thing to write about, it’s a dance studio while people are dying and being bombed,” she said. “And the reason I decided to write it anyway is because … it really touches my life and my friends and community life.”
But she said the firestorm she ignited had not left her with a clearer perspective. She said she had not been won over by either Studio 303’s critics, or its defenders. “Both sides I disagree with,” she said.
“Many people said they’re antisemitic,” she said about Studio 303. “I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s complex. And I wanted to start this conversation and hear what people had to say about it.”
Ultimately, Skoblinski said, she had drawn one firm conclusion — that the debate spilled far beyond her Montreal dance studio. “The conversation,” she said, “is more interesting than the actual case.”
