Below is the text of the open resignation letter written by a former Highmark Mann employee who resigned 3 days ago in protest of the upcoming “culture-washing” event featuring Mike Solomonov and the Israeli Polyphony orchestra:
TLDR; silence is for when children sleep, not when they die.
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I really could not care less about the acts that come through. Most of them are fine, some of them are great.
Some of them provide material aid to the IDF so that they can murder Palestinian children. Yes, I am referring to this fucking hack, Michael Solomonov.
H!ghmark Mann has sold what was left of its soul.
I will not in any way participate in the erasure of the Palestinian people or their culture. I will not be silent about this.
The dehumanization of these children has become too much to bear.
H!GHMARK MANN IS PARTICIPATING IN THE CULTUREWASHING OF A GENOCIDE,
FULL STOP.
Gaza is now, as described by UNICEF, “a graveyard for children.”
Ian, will you help facilitate this erasure of Palestinian culture? Every genocide needs people working on the infrastructure and logistics. Is that you? Dude, I know this is your career but for fuck sake, they are targeting children with drones, and Michael Solomonov thinks that’s fine, ask him. Andrew McMahon would be disappointed, I guess… I’m sure he has opinions and stuff. You have a massive opportunity here Ian to stand up, in this small way, for the sanctity of Palestinian life, for the rights of children everywhere. I know this seems foolish and small, and I am. But this is a massive moment for you, sir.
The Israeli government has instituted “systems” of killing, by which Palestinians are slaughtered like cattle in an open-air factory farm. Children are being targeted by drones, split in half by bullets. Doctors have described some martyred children as “liquified”. The absolute desecration of Palestinian bodies. This is an affront to human life. This is welcome at H!ghmark Mann.
The IDF has bombed Gaza into oblivion. Google Images reveal the scope of these horrors, and of our shared complicity in these killings. Michael Solomonov would call this “conflict”. It is a fucking genocide.
Lock back in.
FREE PALESTINE! ALL FUCKING DAY.
BOYCOTT COOKNSOLO!
FUCK THE IDF! Cowards and racists support Israel.
Toby, did you book this filth? You should have booked Heba Zagout, the dazzling Palestinian painter. Nevermind, she was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Perhaps the poet and novelist Hiba Abu Nada? Apologies, she was also murdered by the IDF. Some basic research before you book people who assist in atrocities and war crimes would help. I have a feeling you didn’t even book this, that this was essentially given to you. CookNSolo restaurants are failing, closing all over the city, so now it’s up to you to launder their reputation, Toby. You will be used and discarded, Toby. Quit sleepwalking, homie.
Chlamydia takes two weeks to clear up. You have five days.
Pro-Palestinian artists will no longer play The Mann. Maybe an Ed Sheeran tribute act. I think P!nk is looking for smaller venues.
Fontaines D.C. will not want to be playing H!ghmark Mann. Kehlani, Amyl and the Sniffers, and MUNA will not want to be playing this venue again.
Please laugh at me saying that. Please. Fontaines D.C. team is not going to be happy. You think I am livid about this? Good luck with the lads, Toby. I’m mild.
But hey, at least you will finally get to try “Israeli” hummus. Yum!
Anthony, will you lend your gravitas to an occupier? Every child has a counterpart in Gaza. You’ll need to get this sorted.
Notes on Polyphony: This is some off-brand “orchestra” that presents Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a two-sided cultural struggle. Great fucking fiction. FUCK POLYPHONY. I wish I had more to say but they are the equivalent of Jacob Collier, but somehow less interesting and less original.
Ashley, will you set a VIP table for displacement? Stealing people’s homes and lives is definitely NOT giving pop punk princess. Will Michael Solomonov wait for hours at a checkpoint if he needs hors d’oeuvres? The way an ambulance waits at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank while a toddler dies in the back? Not chic.
Again, this fucking fraud Solomonov sells products produced in the occupied West Bank! Wake the fuck up people!
Kelly, I’ll help you find your voice. It’s FREE PALESTINE.
The entire world is crying for Palestine to be free. Palestine must be free.
Megan, will you crunch the numbers? 20,000 children martyred in Gaza, an estimated 5,000 still buried under the rubble. Do the math. A fundamental truth: You recognize the eyes of Hind Rajab. Do you often wonder what books she read, as I do? You are being used, Megan.
When this is over, when the Palestinian people are free, or when Israel finishes out their “birthright” - to kill every last Palestinian - the world will look upon the United States with abject disgust. Even more than they already do. We will be hated for lifetimes to come. The full scale of these atrocities has not yet been revealed. Your children will want to know what you did from your position in this world, to speak up. Don’t lie.
Cathy, do you understand why this charlatan should not be selling products produced in the occupied West Bank? Do you understand why it is sickening to welcome someone who donated over $100k to the IDF? Do you understand that this man is a dehumanizer of the lowest fucking order? By allowing this at your venue you are 100% complicit in culturewashing. You can still turn back. I fear you won’t. I fear that someone like me speaking to you like this will embolden you, you will double-down on this catastrophic mistake. This photo op will not age well.
Do not try to “both-sides” this by saying you have welcomed Pro-Palestinian voices. There is a huge difference between allowing artists and students to say FREE PALESTINE and hosting someone who has materially assisted the IDF. So there’s that.
And please, miss me with any antisemitism talk. This is and has always been strictly about justice for the children of Palestine. But the world is waking up. Please do not get left behind. A once-great institution is about to disgrace itself. This is not going to be worth it.
By booking this charade, hosting it, and doing the financials you are complicit in Michael Solomonov’s depraved celebration of Palestinian death. His tribute to his brother, an IDF soldier, will be your professional legacy. You are actively celebrating the murder and displacement of Palestinians if you work, attend, or have anything the fuck to do with this show.
The movement for Palestinian freedom is a global movement for justice.
Sue me. Get a toy with your Happy Meal.
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Gaza’s night is dark apart from the glow of rockets,
quiet apart from the sound of the bombs,
terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer,
black apart from the light of the martyrs.
Goodnight, Gaza.
-Hiba Abu Nada
FREE PALESTINE
ALL EYES ON THE WEST BANK
WORLD SOUL TOWARD GAZA