The University of Minnesota brought the Batsheva Dance Company of Tel Aviv to Minneapolis for one performance on February 18th, 2009. This is a violation of the 2004 Palestinian call to “comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions”and the 2005 call of 171 Palestinian civil society organizations for broad boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Above: One of the “Blood on your hands” flyers hung in the toilet of Northrop Auditorium during Batsheva’s performance.

This dance company is funded by the Israeli government and is considered a “leading ambassador” of the Israeli government, by the Israeli government.

Several of Batsheva’s members are serving Israeli reservist soldiers. An atypically high number of reservist units in the Israeli army were deployed in the Gaza Strip–where an indisputable slaughter was carried out, with terrible stories published even in mainstream sources.

Bringing Israel government-funded, dancing Israeli soldiers to town after the gratuitous massacre of innocents in Gaza is utterly unacceptable.

It was amazing to see people get excited about the protest, not just in Minnesota, but around the country at other protests. There was definitely a really good feeling of coming together to try a new angle. And it worked. It was no small thing to see 60 people at an outside protest of an Israeli dance company in 10°F/-12°C Minnesotan winter weather. It was obvious that Gaza had been the final straw for a lot of people.