Yom Limmud 2022

The boycott of this year’s Sydney Festival by the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement shocked and saddened many of us. Local violinist Ben and festival organiser Nawfel, who fled Iraq as a refugee in 2005, were particularly aggrieved by the activists’ claims that the Sydney Festival had been rendered “culturally unsafe” on account of the Israeli Embassy agreeing to fund one show. Ben and Nawfel published an op-ed in The Sydney Morning Herald opposing the boycott and the politicisation of art, and have since been engaged in building cultural bridges between their communities. This is their story.