Next week the Police Academy will hold a course titled "Police and Community". While the name sounds harmless, the course has generated a wave of backlash because it is being facilitated by the Israeli state - which, critics say, is a practitioner and exporter of violence.
The jewish state recently made headlines for its brutal crackdown on Palestinian protestors. In fact, Belize was one of 120 UN countries who publicly condemned Israel's actions against Palestine. Now, in order to protest the police's involvement with the controversial Israel military, a group of artists, lead by Katie Usher, has penned a letter to the Prime Minister and Cabinet to voice their concerns. Usher came by our studio today to explain more...
Katie Usher - Protesting Artist
"Before I say anything, I want to say, this is not against Israeli people. This is against the government of Israel and thinking about the human rights violations in the Gaza, especially in the West Bank against Palestinians. I cannot fathom a military that is responsible for so much human rights violations coming to do a police and community. It really, really is a cause for concern for us."
"What we have here is a letter to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and other members of the National Assembly where it sates all the reasons why we're concerned, from the Israeli military arming the Guatemalan Armed Forces. From them moving their capital to Jerusalem. It's a full back of things that is very concerning."
"As artists we need to say that oppressed communities need our support. You know, I think a lot of time there's activism and it's so sexy, and we take social issues and we use them to make cool art. We can't just use social issues without actually taking a stand and I think this is one of the main opportunities to do so."
Reporter
"We know that there has been some artwork produced in terms of this protest. Can you talk to us about that?"
Katie Usher - Protesting Artist
"Well it's really cool. There's this artist, he goes by Litto and he's making some logos that really, you see it and right away what I like about it. It's like a logogram, it's saying exactly what it's showing. And you know, the world is so image driven now, so we can write this whole letter, some people even told me miss ih long I noh want read it, but the image will go directly to your eyes and we're hoping that it goes directly to your heart and we start to think about what is our position as Belize the country."
Usher spent today collecting signatures in Belize City and Belmopan.
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