https://news.artnet.com/art-world/letters-supporting-palestinian-liberation-2381585
Politics
Kara Walker, Joan Jonas, Judith Butler, and Other Cultural Luminaries Are Calling on Institutions to Denounce Israeli ‘War Crimes’ in Gaza
Many art institutions have stayed silent on the issue.
Going on two weeks into the deadly crisis in the Middle East, three open letters from high-profile artists and cultural figures are calling for justice for Palestinians in Gaza.
One letter, addressed “from the art community to cultural organizations,” was signed by artists Peter Doig, Nan Goldin, Barbara Kruger, Tomás Saraceno, Joan Jonas, and Kara Walker, as well as filmmaker Laura Poitras and scholars Judith Butler and Fred Moten.
“We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians,” the letter read. “We demand that the institutional silence around the ongoing humanitarian crisis that 2.3 million Palestinians are facing in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip be broken immediately.”
Many institutions in the art world have stayed quiet on the issue, perhaps reluctant to choose sides given the long, divisive history of tensions and armed violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
The conflict ignited anew on October 7 with Hamas’s surprise rocket launch and massacre of Israeli civilians. But while the Israeli death toll has been horrific, the letter, as well as two others from leading writers and actors in the U.S. and U.K., focuses on the even larger numbers mounting in Gaza.
A letter from the U.K. group Artists for Palestine, which counts actors Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, and Steve Coogan among its signees, focused on the losses faced by the people of Palestine, writing that “Israel has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, and cut off the supply of water, power, food and medicine to 2.3 million Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, a letter from the London Review of Books signed by artists Molly Crabapple, Chitra Ganesh, and William Powhida, among others, also condemned Israel’s deadly retaliation in Gaza.
“We can only express our grief and heartbreak for the victims of these most recent tragedies, and for their families, both Palestinians and Israelis,” the letter read, going on to note that “human rights groups have long condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the inhumane treatment of—and system of racial domination over—Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state.” It notes that Israeli historian Raz Segal has called “the situation in Gaza as a ‘textbook case of genocide.’”
Israel responded to the offensive, which the U.S. has denounced as an act of terrorism, with air strikes that have led to the mass displacement of an estimated 1 million Gazans.
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Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Chastain, Quinta Brunson & More Call On Biden To Propose Cease Fire In Gaza & Israel
by Tom Tapp
October 20, 2023
DEADLINE
A long list of big-name actors released a letter today directed to President Biden asking him to call for a cease fire in Gaza and Israel.
Among the signatories are Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Chastian, Cate Blanchett, Quinta Brunson, Rosario Dawson, Oscar Isaac, Joaquin Phoenix, Alyssa Milano, Jon Stewart and many more. The list includes prominent Jewish, Muslim and Christian actors
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear President Biden,
We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.
We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages. Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach them.
We believe that the United States can play a vital diplomatic role in ending the suffering and we are adding our voices to those from the US Congress, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, The International Committee of The Red Cross, and so many others. Saving lives is a moral imperative. To echo UNICEF, “Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”
As of this writing more than 6,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza in the last 12 days – resulting in one child being killed every 15 minutes.
Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed.
We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing. As Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths told UN News, “History is watching.”
Signed:
Riz Ahmed
Mahershala Ali
Mo Amer
Cate Blanchett
Quinta Brunson
Farah Bsaiso
Jessica Chastain
Margaret Cho
David Cross
Cherien Dabis
Rosario Dawson
Ayo Edebiri
Fatima Farheen Mirza
America Ferrera
Dominique Fishback
Andrew Garfield
Ilana Glazer
Oscar Isaac
Shaka King
Elvira Lind
Aria Mia Loberti
Macklemore
Michael Malarkey
Rooney Mara
Darius Marder
Vic Mensa
Alyssa Milano
Hasan Minhaj
Indya Moore
Sandra Oh
Joaquin Phoenix
Mark Ruffalo
Hend Sabry
Susan Sarandon
James Schamus
Amanda Seales
Anoushka Shankar
Alia Shawkat
Wallace Shawn
Sebastian Silva
Jon Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Jeremy Strong
Wanda Sykes
Michael Stipe
Amber Tamblyn
Bassam Tariq
Channing Tatum
Dominique Thorne
Michelle Wolf
Shailene Woodley
Ramy Youssef
