In solidarity with the people of Palestine and in support of full Palestinian liberation, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC) is committed to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), put forth by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Accordingly, TONYC will continue the following practices as an organization:

• Rejecting collaboration with any organization that receives funding from the state of Israel or any Israeli cultural or academic organization that helps maintain the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
• Boycotting any cultural event that is partially or fully sponsored or funded by an official Israeli body (e.g. Israeli government or institution).
• Refusing participation in any form of academic or cultural cooperation, collaboration, or joint project with Israeli institutions, including refusing all forms of funding and subsidies to/from these institutions.
• Refraining from hosting, promoting, or participating in any project that seeks to “normalize” the Israeli occupation of Palestine and/or the dehumanization of Palestinians and any project that  advances a false symmetry between oppressed and oppressor.
• Supporting Palestinian academic and cultural institutions and individuals without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

TONYC will not cross the international picket line and we urge our fellow arts organizations and theatre institutions to do the same.

We are one of 17 theatrical and performance organizations from around the United States endorsing the call for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) today. Since 2004, PACBI has organized with partners globally to end all forms of cultural and academic complicity with apartheid Israel as the most meaningful form of pressure to compel it to comply with international law. The NYC-based Theater Workers for a Ceasefire PACBI Working Group has been advancing this movement in the theater since June 2024.

Endorsing organizations include Aye Defy (New York), Basement Light Productions (New York), GLYK Kolektiv (New York), KALEIDOSPACE (New York), National Queer Theater (New York), No Exit Theater Collective (New York), Panopoly Performance Laboratory (New York), Radical Evolution (New York), Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (New York), Applied Mechanics (Philadelphia), Ninth Planet (Philadelphia), Definitely Human Theatre (Poughkeepsie), The Story Theatre (Chicago), Sana Sana Productions (Los Angeles), Bindlestiff (San Francisco), Donkeysaddle Projects (Seattle), and Dunya Productions (Seattle).

Theatre of the Oppressed NYC operates on the basis of Brazilian theatre director and activist Augusto Boal's global methodology, Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O.), which uses theatre as a means of cultural transformation in the pursuit of a just world. Boal began his career during a period when anti-imperialist endeavors were encouraged by the Kubitschek government, but later faced systemic censorship by the deeply conservative military dictatorship that was established in 1964. He adapted to the repressive climate by developing democratically distributable alternative political theatre formats, including forum theatre, TONYC’s most frequently used T.O. format. One of the major aims of forum theatre is to reveal imbalances in power and modes of domination in order to call attention to oppressive systems. The performance itself is not the product, but rather a means by which its participants — including the audience — can challenge their status quo and brainstorm solutions to real world problems. We at TONYC recognize the resonance of this internationalist methodology for bridging the struggles of oppressed people in this historical moment, and we see the similarities between the conditions out of which T.O. was born in Brazil and the conditions of Israel's current occupation.

T.O. is by its nature both activist and artistic practice; the TONYC team believes in the essential power of cultural work to effect social and political change. Both inside and outside the rehearsal room, we work to analyze, unpack, and dismantle all forms of power, including anti-Black racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, imperialism, ableism, and anti-immigrant bias. Identifying and countering intersectional systems of oppression is at the core of our work. We therefore believe that taking a principled stance in support of the safety, autonomy, peace, and dignity of Palestinians, and in opposition to cultural work and art that prevents the realization of those values, is both natural to and necessitated by TONYC's work and mission. We also recognize Palestinian cultural organizations like Ashtar Theater and Combatants for Peacelong as longstanding T.O. practitioners, using theatre to fight for Palestinian agency.

The BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, or religion) or opinion. Mere affiliation of Israeli cultural workers to an Israeli cultural institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott. If, however, an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution, or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to “rebrand” itself, then their activities are subject to the institutional boycott the BDS movement is calling for.

For more information about BDS and PACBI, please visit bdsmovement.net/pacbi.