BDS campaign urges Palestinian, Arab artists, governments to snub Dubai Expo 2020

Palestinian and Arab artists have been asked to snub the World Expo in Dubai, which will have an Israeli presence, by pro-Palestine campaigners.

Arab governments and other organisations are also being petitioned to skip next month's Dubai Expo 2020 event by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), according to a Boycott4Pal article on Tuesday.

The campaign said: "We have many examples and models that confirm our Arab peoples and their national and cultural institutions cast out and isolate artists implicated in normalisation.

"Therefore, we call on Arab artists to join the dozens of artists who pledged not to participate in any event sponsored by the Emirati regime or sponsored by any company or foundation complicit in the implementation of the Emirati-Israeli normalisation agreement until the UAE ends its normalisation."

BDS claimed it had become aware of which Arab artists will likely attend the event, although the organisers have not released details on this yet.

The campaign said the UAE was making efforts to bolster Israel's image by granting it a pavilion at the exhibition.

Formally known as Expo 2020 but set back a year due to coronavirus, the event is part of the World Expo fair series, the last of which was held in Milan in Italy in 2015.

The deal to normalise relations between Israel and the UAE was reached in September 2020.

Ties between the two countries have deepened significantly since then, with the UAE having launched its Tel Aviv embassy this July.