Gaza October 2023. We met at the Access Denied Agency, last Saturday of the Month to discuss as artists, the situation in Palestine. And what does it mean for us, what can we do.
Men, women and children are unable to flee to safe places. It is a huge humanitarian disaster. A genocide is taking place.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media doesn’t tell the full story. There is censorship of news, of protest and a decrease in democratic spaces where people can voice their opinion. We see in our cities that undocumented migrants, refugees and displaced peoples’ legitimate protest against the genocide, the exercise of of basic freedoms to speak, protest, organize themselves are particularly seen as polarizing acts. Yet everyone has the freedom to speak out. To stand up for Palestine, to demand an end to the genocide and stop the bombing of Gaza. This is the freedom of speech and it is for all.
To claim institutional political neutrality, and then withhold resources and censor artists and their organizations from taking a principled stand against the ongoing genocide and colonial occupation, is to take the side of the oppressors and exploiters. The Palestinians did not get a say in who their oppressors are. And to hold the history of Europe against them, to justify the act of 75 years of long-running of Zionist colonization of Palestine is a one sided, decolonial standpoint. Recheck your historic point of view. Get educated on this.
We as a network of artists and organizers in support of undocumented and displaced communities in Europe support the call for a ceasefire and an end to the killing and harming of civilians and non-combatants in the ongoing conflict in Palestine. We urge our communities and cultural workers to also support the call for immediate measures that will allow the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
As artists and organizers, we urge local, national, and international cultural organizations to break the institutional silence regarding the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We urge the entire art and culture community to unite and work hard towards contributing to the just and long-term solution of the occupation.
We can demonstrate, amplify, advocate, resist, support the cause. Speak out, not be silenced.
