More than 2,000 British artists have taken an active stance, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli air strikes have claimed the lives of over 3,000 Palestinians, including approximately 25% who are children, and have displaced around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants from their homes.
Notable artists, including Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, and Miriam Margolyes, have joined this cause. According to reports, a group known as Artists For Palestine is leading this collective action, and they recently released a petition. In this petition, they squarely place responsibility on world governments for not just tolerating but actively “aiding and abetting” what they view as Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza.
Prominent directors Mike Leigh and Asif Kapadia, along with authors Marina Warner and Gillian Slovo, are among the signatories who share their deep concerns regarding Israel’s Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, and his portrayal of Palestinians as “human animals.” They also strongly condemn his decision to place the 2.3 million residents of Gaza under siege.
Moreover, the artists assert, “We are witnessing a crime and a catastrophe. Israel has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and has severed the supply of water, power, food, and medicine to 2.3 million Palestinians. In the words of the UN’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, ‘the specter of death’ is hanging over the territory.”
Palestine’s Painful History
The letter invokes the painful history of forced Palestinian evacuations in 1948, underscoring that Gaza is a society of refugees and their descendants. Now, Palestinians, whose grandparents faced forced displacement, face the choice to flee or endure collective punishment on an unimaginable scale under relentless bombardment from air, sea, and land.
The group emphasizes that there will come a time when governments supporting Israel will be held accountable for their complicity, and they declare their obligation to do everything within their power to bring an end to the unprecedented cruelty being inflicted upon Gaza.
