FREE FRIDAYS AREN’T FREE

Free Friday Nights at MOCA are sponsored by Scotiabank. As the largest foreign shareholder in Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest arms company, Scotiabank directly funds the genocide of Palestinians.

Send the following letter to MOCA executives to call for Scotiabank to divest from Elbit Systems.

Say no to artwashing genocide. Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Dear Kathleen Bartels, Executive Director & CEO; Natasha Minaeva, Director of Finance; Rui Mateus Amaral, Artistic Director; Lili Vahamaki, Director of Operations & HR; and Lucy Westell, Director of Strategic Fundraising;

I am writing to you as a visitor to the MOCA who is concerned about the sponsorship of “Free Friday Nights” by Scotiabank.

Over the past eight months, the systematic destruction of Palestinian life by the Israeli military has reached unimaginable depths. Close to 40,000 people, of whom at least 15,000 were children and babies, have been killed. Over 1.7 million people have been internally displaced within the Gaza Strip, with many forced into refugee camps and so-called safe zones that continue to be bombed. Hospital and medical infrastructure, agricultural land and other means of sustenance, as well as sites of intellectual, cultural and artistic production have been obliterated. The assault on Palestinians continues today, despite international condemnation, and against all reason.

Scotiabank plays a direct role in this violence. Scotiabank is the largest foreign shareholder in Elbit Systems, Israel's biggest weapons manufacturer. Elbit Systems produces 85% of Israel's drones and land-based military equipment. Elbit Systems also produced white phosphorus, an internationally-banned war munition which sticks to human flesh while burning it. And Elbit Systems is involved in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank through technologies maintaining the apartheid barrier wall, which was deemed illegal by the ICJ in 2004.

Due to public pressure from Canadians during the course of this genocide, Scotiabank has quietly divested around half of their stake in Elbit Systems. Artists and cultural workers across Canada affiliated with the prizes, institutions, and festivals that Scotiabank funds have pulled their work and spoken out against the reprehensibility of artwashing. As the Giller Prize-nominated author Noor Naga stated, "We want a total divestment from Elbit Systems and the arms trade. Until then, as writers and artists across Canada, we refuse to participate. We refuse to let our work distract for even a second from the filthy business of war. To use language that will be familiar to a bank: it’s not worth it."

Complete divestment from Elbit Systems is not impossible or improbable: other banks around the world have pulled their funds from Elbit Systems, including the Government Pension Fund of Norway, AXA IM, and Danske Bank, which stated that they refuse to place their funds in companies that "violate international standards."

Pressure from partnering organizations like MOCA will lead to Scotiabank’s complete divestment from Elbit Systems. As a MOCA guest and supporter, I urge you to:

• Demand that Scotiabank divest completely from Elbit Systems

• Remove Scotiabank as a sponsor of MOCA’s “Free Friday Nights” if Scotiabank refuses to divest from Elbit

• Continue to protect free public entry and access to the museum

“Free” admission is not truly free when it comes at a cost to human life. Scotiabank’s sponsorship of Friday nights at MOCA means that access to the museum is predicated on war profiteering. MOCA’s stated values include “Courage and Responsibility.” What will MOCA do? Will MOCA play an important role in leading Toronto’s arts sector into a more just future?

I will be following this matter closely, and your response will determine whether or not I continue supporting MOCA.

The No Arms In The Arts Campaign is a group of artists who refuse to let our work be used to artwash ethnic cleansing and genocide. We won't stop until our industries are free from the entanglements of the military industrial complex, until those systems are abolished, and until we see a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.