Tell the Recording Academy: Stop Supporting Apartheid Israel

The Recording Academy

Entertainment award shows like the Oscars and the Grammys have always been sites of struggle for shifting our cultural norms.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen national conversations about race, gender, sexuality, and Indigenous people’s rights sparked by movements taking these institutions to task for ways they’ve upheld and created deeply harmful cultural norms.

That’s why we’re so concerned that The Recording Academy - the body responsible for hosting the Grammys - recently partnered with the anti-Black, anti-Palestinian front group “Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance.”

While the name may sound honorable, this group shares leadership and funding with Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) - a group created with the explicit mission of undermining the Palestinian freedom movement. Since 2004, Palestinian civil society has asked artists to boycott Israel until Palestinians have full equality, freedom and dignity. CCFP’s goal is to convince artists to cross that picket line by performing in apartheid Israel.

Furthermore, in 2018, Creative Community for Peace was exposed as a front group for StandWithUs - a lobby group that works with the extreme right-wing Israeli government to suppress and criminalize pro-Palestinian activism around the world.

As a coalition of Palestinian, Black, and Jewish organizations focused on building a more just world for all of us, we are demanding that the Recording Academy end its partnership with the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance.

We need to show them that the people are with us, and that you will not tolerate this betrayal of the Recording Academy’s avowed commitments to anti-racism.

We need more than performative activism. We need a commitment, at the very least, to not actively undermine our movements for justice.

Join us and demand that the Recording Academy do better.


To: The Recording Academy
From: [Your Name]

Dear Recording Academy,

We join a coalition of Palestinian, Black, and Jewish organizations committed to fostering a more just world for all in expressing concern about The Recording Academy's partnership with the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance (BJEA). We firmly believe this partnership undermines the principles of justice, equality, and anti-racism that the Recording Academy claims to uphold.

Contrary to its positive branding and feel-good name, the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance is connected to the bigoted, fundamentalist Israeli government and was created by a racist, right-wing Israel lobby group for destructive ends - to sabotage the global surge in solidarity with Palestine and interconnected justice struggles.

The leaders of these organizations have a long history of racism.

We urge the Recording Academy to take immediate action in line with the following demands:

1. Commit to not co-sponsoring future events with BJEA.

2. Avoid partnering with any group that actively promotes Israeli apartheid.

3. Refrain from partnering with any group that actively promotes anti-Black racism.

4. Collaborate with organizations that combat antisemitism without promoting anti-Palestinian racism. Consider working with groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace or PARCEO, which have a history of engaging in broader anti-racist struggles without conflating antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel.

We believe that it is crucial for the Recording Academy to demonstrate its commitment to genuine anti-racism and justice.

We seek more than just performative activism; we seek substantive and meaningful change.

Together, we can work towards a more equitable and just world, where cultural institutions like the Recording Academy continue to inspire positive change.