The activists were ordered to pay damages of $18,000 by Israeli court for the cancellation of singer Lorde's concert in Tel Aviv last June.
New Zealand activists, Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab, were ordered to pay an $18,000 New Zealand dollar fine (around €10,000) to three Israeli teenagers for writing an open letter to Lorde. In the letter which they wrote in December, they told Lorde playing "a performance in Israel sends the wrong message. Playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the policies of the Israeli government, even if you make no comment on the political situation." You can read the letter in full here.
Lorde went on to cancel her June performance. The Israeli court responded last week to the cancellation of the gig, by fining the activists for damaging the "artistic welfare" of Israel. In response, Sachs and Abu-Shanab set up a crowdfunding campaign and the donations have been rolling in ever since. The pair now plan to not pay the fine they were charged with, but instead will be donating the $29,000 (over €16,000) to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation.
Sachs has been tweeting the news to her followers on Twitter, thanking everyone who contributed to the fund: "I'm so proud and humbled by the public support, solidarity, and generosity! We live in truly dark times where it is easy to feel cynical and fatalistic." You can read all of Sachs' follow-up tweets below:
We have now raised over 20K for the Gaza Mental Health Foundation.
That is $1000 more than what the Israeli regime is demanding we pay for writing an open letter endorsing the BDS movement. https://t.co/qR5gRht4pX— j 🗣 (@_unfortunate1) October 15, 2018
I'm so proud and humbled by the public support, solidarity and generosity!
We live in truly dark times where it is easy to feel cynical and fatalistic.— j 🗣 (@_unfortunate1) October 15, 2018
People coming together to give the middle finger to apartheid but more importantly to materially support the oppressed and brutalized makes me feel less alone and hopeless.
— j 🗣 (@_unfortunate1) October 15, 2018
The struggle for Palestine is the same struggle for clean water in Flint.
It is also the struggle for housing in New Zealand. For refugees imprisoned on Nauru. It is the struggle against greed, profiteering and domination, it is a struggle for humanity.— j 🗣 (@_unfortunate1) October 15, 2018
We won't be beaten into submission, we won't be tempted to desire our own oppression and most importantly we won't give up! We have nothing to lose, we have everything to gain.
Thank you again.
— j 🗣 (@_unfortunate1) October 15, 2018
The Israeli court have yet to comment on the situation.