Use this letter by Arts Workers for Palestine to contact arts institutions and organisations.
We are Arts Workers for Palestine, Scotland, we have come together in solidarity with the people of Palestine from across all different sectors of the arts in Scotland.
As we bear witness to the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, collective punishment and humanitarian crises in Gaza enforced by the state of Israel and supported by Western governments, we urgently call for arts and cultural spaces across Scotland to break their silence and take action.
Silence at this urgent time of crisis and escalating genocide is not a politically neutral position. Over the last few years there have been significant steps to institutionally address social justice and inequality - your artistic programmes benefit from these politics, featuring marginalised people’s works and gaining traction through discussions and cultural property attributed to peoples’ struggles. These benefits have to come with your overwhelming solidarity and support for these artists’ lives, by standing up against the oppression and violence they face. We ask that you uphold these responsibilities in recognising the crimes against humanity that the Palestinian people are facing.
The moral obligation is clear for the sector to condemn genocide, including the state-sanctioned crimes against humanity in Gaza. In recent years arts organisations have come together in support and solidarity for Black Lives Matter and victims of the Ukraine Invasion. We urge Scottish arts organisations to stand with the people of Palestine in the same way. The current sector's silence and selective empathy raise concerns [about maintaining cultural autonomy]; continuing this trend may lead to cultural institutions serving as vehicles for government propaganda.
With impunity, Israel has already undertaken three of the five defining acts outlined by the United Nations Genocide Convention. We must come together to stop this now. Western governments and powers are not only supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but actively aiding and abetting it. We are witnessing the dehumanisation of Palestinians and Muslims by Western media to incite Islamophobia and other racist narratives to justify murder and devastation.
It’s not too late to act. We urge you to add the weight of your cultural position to this call to condemn the atrocities increasing every single day. This is colonisation in action and you have the power to contribute to its undoing.
In this state of crisis and emergency, immediacy of action is crucial. We recognise the legal or institutional barriers you may face in taking a position as an organisation, and draw your attention to your organisational obligations to uphold the Equality Act 2010. Taking an uncompromised stance against settler colonialism, Islamophobia and genocide sends a clear signal in times when people of colour, especially Palestinians, Muslim and Jewish people will face a rise in violence and hate crimes directed against them. You have a duty of care toward your workers, artists, stakeholders, audiences- past, present and future.
ACTIONS: we urge you to:
1. Raise your voice, exhibit integrity and leadership by making a call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of appropriate humanitarian aid, and an end to the settler-colonial occupation of Palestine. These are some the demands made by Palestinians themselves in their latest call to action. See here in full.
2. Donate: support Medical Aid for Palestinian’s Emergency Appeal for Gaza
3. Include your stance against settler colonialism and occupation in your organisational policy. Commit to BDS and include a BDS policy.
4. Lobby your MP or local representatives to pressure and end their military and political support with Israel until it adheres to international law. Here is a format letter from MAP.
5. Point your audiences and membership to resources that raise awareness about the ongoing genocide against Palestinians. Some organisations providing resources on Palestine include Palestine Studies and IMEU.You can find further resources as well as instagram accounts of Palestinian journalists here bravely documenting the day to day of the horrific events from on the ground.
6. Provide clear, actionable resources and organisational processes to protect workers and audiences from acts of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of racism during this period. We urge you at the same time as resisting antisemitism, to reject the rhetoric that support of Palestine and speaking out against Israel’s war crimes is anti-semitic. We would also like to draw your attention to the campaign group Jewish Voice for Peace who campaign for Palestine’s freedom and the liberation of all people.
7. Commit to supporting those who courageously speak out on this issue, even in the face of institutional and media scrutiny.
We have composed this letter with reference to the following Open Letters by:
Museum Detox Open Letter
Mosaic Rooms Call for Solidarity October 2023
Arts Workers for Palestine Scotland statement May 2023
Scottish BPOC Writers Network statement October 2023
Links and references:
Boycot, Divest Sanctions https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds
Medical aid for Palestine https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donation-details/484
Email your MP https://www.map.org.uk/campaigns/protect-palestinians-against-atrocities-in-gaza
Jewish Voice for Peace https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
Amnesty International on Israel’s war crimes against Gaza https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/
Amnesty International report Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/
UN definition of genocide https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
Jewish Currents https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
Unprovoked Narratives (a series of films celebrating the beauty of Gaza, it’s people and it’s survival) https://www.palestinefilminstitute.org
The Insitutute for Palestine Studies insta: @palestinestudies https://instagram.com/palestinestudies?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==