Fifty members of the Bay Area human rights community protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) performance at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on February 27th, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Seattle’s Benaroya Opera House.

Concert-goers were greeted with a checkpoint proclaiming “Palestinians Must Stop, Israelis Can Go Around,” modeled after checkpoints in the West Bank where Palestinians are frequently forced to wait for hours. The mock checkpoint was guarded by soldiers armed with musical instruments morphing into guns. Protesters carried signs reading, “Don’t Harmonize With Apartheid,” “Israel Fiddles while Palestine Burns,” and “Justice Presto, Not Lento.” The protest also featured a kazoo band. Demonstrators banged pots and pans and blew whistles while chanting “drown out apartheid.”

Read More | New Yorkers protest Israel Philharmonic