Email Template: Saul Williams & Crips For eSIMs #
🤲 RECIPIENTS: #
spacewaysradio@gmail.com,
tenorman@yahoo.com,
Fetle.wondimu@gmail.com,
nicole@atlesmusic.com,
laura@atlesmusic.com
‼️ SUBJECT: #
URGENT! Rising Festival = Zionist Complicity
🖇️ ATTACHMENT: #
📣 PDF FILE
https://drive.proton.me/urls/QQB5QNH7C8#8hh4B7JQK8zZ
💌 EMAIL BODY: #
Hello everyone,
I'm (NAME), a volunteer with Crips for eSIMS for Gaza. I'm urgently reaching out about your show with Saul Williams tomorrow in Naarm/Melbourne, as part of Rising Festival at the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC).
Saul's music has kept us going while organising globally to disrupt the imperial war machine.
But as an organiser committed to ending genocidal normalisation in the arts industry, I can confidently say that Rising Festival, MRC, & the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) where Neptune Frost is playing, are all zionist.
MRC is funded by the zionist Besen Family Foundation. Besen was also the originator & major funder of Rising Festival.
A divestment action in 2024 where several artists withdrew from the festival resulted in Besen pulling funding. But Rising itself did not divest, and has never been held accountable for its continuing zionist associations.
Rising's damage control strategy since then involves platforming many queer/non-white artists, particularly Bla(c)k artists, presumably to launder its genocidal complicity. I believe your show is part of this.
More details and sources can be found at the end of this email.
It would be a powerful act of solidarity if you all stood against this.
Right now, fundraising for Palestinian survival is in crisis. Not enough money is coming in for anyone.
So: I invite you to stage an intervention.
Inspired by Saul's call to convene a meeting under the guise of music, I'm sharing a poem (see attached) by a comrade, designed to be a script for audience interaction in the "Elisabeth Murdoch Hall".
It tells of the venue's complicity, and encourages the crowd to commit a recurring donation to the Crips for Esims for Gaza fundraiser.
It also encourages everyone to share contact details with their neighbours, and spark connections for future conspiring.
If you're interested, please forward this message to Saul.
Thanks for your time.
**Rising Festival's Complicity**
In-depth articles by comrade Matt Chun:
Regarding Rising
https://mattchun.substack.com/p/regarding-rising
Have you comprehensively rejected the Besen Family Foundation?
https://mattchun.substack.com/p/have-you-comprehensively-rejected
Have you comprehensively rejected the Gandel Foundation?
https://mattchun.substack.com/p/have-you-comprehensively-rejected-0b8
Laundering Zionism through classical music
https://mattchun.substack.com/p/laundering-zionism-through-classical
Rising has zionist board members, like Martin Foley, who visited the entity in 2017 to "strengthen the Victoria-Israel bilateral relationship". In 2014, Foley was praised by zionist publication J-Wire for supporting "Israel’s justified but costly operation in Gaza"
https://rising.melbourne/about/people
https://www.jwire.com.au/new-government-victoria/
Falling Melbourne, an artist collective formed during the 2024 withdrawals:
https://www.instagram.com/falling.melbourne/
The Besen Family Foundation, with stolen wealth from settler-colony "australia", fund the Jewish National Fund, a major financial arm of the entity. They also fund the MRC.
https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/support-us/our-supporters
MRC is a key venue for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), which cancelled pianist Jayson Gillham's scheduled performance in 2024 after he dedicated a piece to martyred Palestinian journalists. His court case against the MSO is ongoing.
https://www.mso.com.au/your-visit/venues/elisabeth-murdoch-hall
Jayson Gillham article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-13/jayson-gillham-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-keys-to-life/106667880
ACMI is funded by the Gandel Foundation. The Gandels are one of Netanyahu's biggest funders. They fund the Zionist Federation of Australia, United Israel Appeal, and the Birthright organisation.
https://www.acmi.net.au/support-us/trusts-foundations/
In solidarity,
(NAME)