Palestinian charity withdraws from Boiler Room merch fundraiser

Boiler Room’s recent purchase by a company with ties to military technology and links to Israel has been cited as a reason a charity has withdrawn from the proceeds of its recently shared Palestinian football merch.

In January of this year, Boiler Room was purchased by UK-based festival operator Superstruct Entertainment. The company, responsible for several UK and European-based festivals including Field Day, Sónar Festival, Sziget, Brunch Electronik and others, was purchased in June last year by KKR Investments, a multi-national investment firm.

KKR has many investments, but the ones most notable to dance fans, artists and in this case, Palestinian-based organisations, include its investments in:

• Axel Springer, a German media company that has reportedly advertised Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.
• Real estate software company Guesty, an Israeli property management software said to rent properties on occupied Palestinian land.
• Circor International, which it bought in September of 2023 for USD $1.6 billion.
• Australian-based defence and technology company Advanced Navigation, which it invested AUD $108 million in September 2022.

KKR’s ownership of Superstruct has raised concerns within the dance community, leading some activists to protest outside Boiler Room events.

Read: Boiler Room bought by company linked to US Defence contractor

Over the weekend, Boiler Room announced a piece of merchandise, initially posted in collaboration with FC Palestina, a brand which has since 2015 raised awareness and funding for the people of Palestine through the sale of football themed merchandise and jerseys.

This collaboration, which Boiler Room said had been in development for nearly a year, also initially mentioned donating to The Sameer Project, a donations-based initiative led by Palestinians in the diaspora, working to supply emergency shelter and aid to displaced families in Gaza.

As Ravers For Palestine has reported, however, The Sameer Project withdrew from the collaboration “in protest of its acquisition by ‘Israel’-linked KKR”. On its social media accounts, The Sameer Project shared that in proposing the collaboration, “Boiler Room’s email informed us about KKR’s acquisition. We did a quick search and found nothing so we accepted the collaboration.” After noting the messages it had received about KKR shortly following the announcement, The Sameer Project said that “we take accountability for not doing our due diligence and for that we apologise.”

In their post, they continued: “We are happy to collaborate in the future should Boiler Room decide to divest from interests that serve the occupation. While the money raised would help greatly, we can’t compromise our ethics and values.”

Since then, it appears that FC Palestina is no longer a collaborator from the post, though they are yet to make a statement. The jersey still remains on Boiler Room’s shop.