Vivid on notice after campaign to drop Airbnb sponsorship and cut links with Israel’s apartheid

The campaign demanding Vivid cut ties with Airbnb has had a major impact, focusing attention on the company’s collaboration with illegal Israeli settlements and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Dozens of artists backed the call for Vivid to drop its Airbnb sponsorship, sharing statements on Instagram to their thousands of followers.

All up 36 artists and acts signed an open letter to Vivid calling on it to “Drop the Airbnb sponsorship, Don’t art-wash apartheid.”

On top of this, 24 acts, artists and writers withdrew from Vivid in protest. Label Steel City Dance Disks pulled their show from the festival, involving eight separate acts. “Artists on the lineup agreed to reorganise the show, in support of BDS and the Palestinian cause”, punk band Hunny explained.

Artists involved in two shows at Carriageworks including Moktar, Andy Garvey, Sleep D and Wings of D’sire also put out a statement declaring they had “formally cut ties with Vivid Sydney and its partner, Airbnb”, as “Airbnb has a documented history of listing properties in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.”

This followed the boycott initiated by bands Rydeen, BAYANG (Tha Bushranger), Sevy and Hazeen in April, followed by writer Sisonke Msimang, whose boycott forced the cancellation of the “Dreams of the Future” event organised jointly by Vivid and the Sydney Writers Festival.

Over 1400 people have now signed a general petition to Vivid and the NSW government, and 150 joined a march on Vivid during the festival, hearing from speakers including Pia from Hunny, a Western Sydney based hardcore band who withdrew from Vivid.

When the campaign began, very few knew that Airbnb was listed by the official international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a pressure target. It is also on the OHCHR (UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) database of companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Now thousands of fans and artists across the music scene are angry about Vivid and the NSW government’s decision to partner with a company that supports Israel’s system of apartheid. The campaign has ignited conversations and a deeper understanding about Israel’s settlement project and its efforts at dispossession against Palestinians.

Vivid was forced to respond, attempting to justify the Airbnb partnership by telling Mixmag, “The NSW Government does not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which targets businesses based on nationality, race or religion.”

In fact Airbnb is a target because it helps fund settlements that are illegal under international law and are part of Israel’s system of apartheid in the West Bank. It allows residents of Israeli settlements to list properties on its site and make money from tourism.

In July last year the International Court of Justice held that Israel’s occupation and settlements in the West Bank were breaching international law prohibitions on apartheid and racial segregation.

The BDS movement targets Israel not on the basis of nationality or religion but due to its “persistent violations of international law” and refusal to recognise the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination through its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has tried to claim that Australia “isn’t a major player” backing Israel and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. But there are links with Israel’s genocide almost everywhere—including in Sydney’s largest music and arts festival, Vivid.

We need to keep fighting to impose the kind of sanctions on Israel that would bring real pressure on it to end its genocide in Gaza—including an end to weapons exports and all trade. The Vivid campaign shows how the fight to cut institutional ties in our workplaces, universities, schools and local communities can deepen the awareness about Israel’s crimes and build the fight to end them.