Turner Prize winner’s inspirational acceptance speech
Artist Jasleen Kaur’s acceptance speech was delivered at the Turner Prize award ceremony at Tate Britain and broadcast live on BBC News, on 3rd December 2024.
All
-
-
Tate, Cut Your Ties With Genocidal Israel
In the lead up to this year’s Turner Prize awards ceremony, more than 60 artists closely associated with Tate (including three out four of this year’s Turner Prize nominees, two of its judges, and many former prize winners and nominees) have signed an open letter. Supported by a thousand further signatories in the arts, it calls on Tate’s leadership to cut ties with organisations that are deeply complicit with the Israeli state.
-
Genocide, With The United Kingdom’s Blessing
Khalid Abdalla Calls On The Government To End Its Complicity.
As Israel systematically eradicates the last remnants of healthcare in Gaza, human rights defenders have screened a film on the walls of St Thomas’s Hospital, London. Actor Khalid Abdalla speaks the words of surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who will never be able to unsee the horror that has been inflicted on Palestinians.
-
‘Every Day a New Atrocity’: Juliet Stevenson calls on government to end supply of arms to Israel
Award-winning actor Juliet Stevenson has released the short film, ‘Every day a new atrocity’, calling again on the UK government to end its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
-
Top filmmakers urge New York Film Festival to drop sponsor complicit in Israel’s war crimes
Ahead of the opening of the 62nd New York Film Festival this evening, dozens of this year’s featured filmmakers, including Mike Leigh (Hard Truths), Julia Loktev (My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow), Neo Sora (Happyend), Basel Adra, Hamdam Ballal and Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), Truong Minh Quý (Viet and Nam) and Carson Lund (Eephus) have published an open letter saying that in the face of Israel’s near year-long “brutal onslaught of killing, maiming and displacement” of Palestinians in Gaza, they are “acting collectively towards ending the complicity of our institutions”.
-
Leading Arts Figures Condemn Anti-Trans and Anti-Palestinian Censorship at Royal Exchange Theatre
Kingsley Ben-Adir, Khalid Abdalla, Pooja Ghai and April De Angelis are among 200+ arts and theatre figures who have signed an open letter to Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre condemning the theatre for censoring references to Palestinian and trans liberation in a recently commissioned work.
-
Hundreds of Artists Condemn the Royal Academy of Arts’ Anti-Palestinian Censorship
Royal Academicians Jock McFadyen, Rana Begum, Vanessa Jackson, Tim Shaw, David Nash, Helen Sear, David Mach and Goshka Macuga are among hundreds of arts professionals condemning the Royal Academy of Arts’ anti-Palestinian censorship after it removed two artworks from its Young Artists’ Summer Show. In an open letter published today by Artists for Palestine UK, the…
-
Top Artists Join Campaign to End UK Arms Sales to Israel
Award winning British artists – Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla, David Calder, Charlotte Church and Maxine Peake – have released a series of short films, ‘Stop Arming Israel’, calling for “an end to Britain’s role in killing Palestinians”, ahead of the UK elections.
-
Leading Artists to Keir Starmer: Commit to Stopping Arms Sales to Israel
Over 100 leading cultural figures in Britain, including Oscar and
BAFTA-winners, have called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to commit to stop
arming Israel if elected Prime Minister on 4 July. -
UK cinemas must refuse Israel-sponsored film festival
Picturehouse and Curzon cinemas have already refused to host the festival. The festival has also been refused at the Cines Girona, Barcelona. We believe there is no moral or ethical justification for a British cultural venue to do ‘business as usual’ with any organisation that is sponsored by the Israeli regime while it intensifies its genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
-
Boycott called off as Bristol’s Arnolfini apologises for anti-Palestinian censorship
The boycott of an iconic British arts venue has ended after it apologised for its anti-Palestinian censorship. The Arnolfini in Bristol said it was “truly sorry” for cancelling film and poetry events curated by Bristol Palestine Film Festival in November last year, and committed platforming Palestinian voices.
-
Leading artists disengage from British venue that censored Palestine
Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, writers Alice Oswald, Nikesh Shukla, Shon Faye, Travis Alabanza and Rachel Holmes are among many of Bristol’s artists who have written a letter accusing the iconic Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts of “censorship of Palestinian culture”.
-
Olivia Colman among 1000+ artists accusing art institutions of censorship on Palestine
More than 1,300 artists, including Academy Award winning Olivia Colman, Olivier Award winners Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson, BAFTA winners Aimee Lou Wood and Siobhán McSweeney, Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Susanne Wokoma (Enola Holmes), Youseff Kerkour (Napoleon), Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton) and Lolly Adefope (Ghosts, Loki), have launched a letter addressed to the arts and culture sector, that accuses cultural institutions across Western countries of:
“repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives”.
-
On Speaking and Silence: the New McCarthyism
Israel and its allies are trying to build a wall of silence around their devastation of Gaza. Around the world, those who seek to break through it are having to contend with an extraordinary and shameful campaign of pressure and threats. No-one who speaks out, from the UN Secretary-General to a London tube-driver, is exempt. Yet the breakthrough has happened.
-
Tilda Swinton among 2000+ artists calling for Gaza ceasefire
Renowned actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake and Khalid Abdalla are among more than two thousand people from across the arts who have signed a letter saying that: “Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them.”
-
Reflections on violence, oppression and a just peace
Artists for Palestine UK redoubles our commitment to fighting for justice, respect and dignity for all people. In what follows, we share statements by international organisations that remind us of the context of the events which we are all now witnessing. We hope this will help to illuminate the root cause of the violence so that we may formulate responses that are grounded in the ethics of genuine care.
-
Leading figures urge Imagine Dragons to cancel Baku and Tel Aviv shows
“We believe Imagine Dragons share these values. We urge the group to uphold them by canceling the shows in Baku and Tel Aviv, and consistently speaking out for everyone’s safety and everyone’s human rights. Palestinians and Armenians, like all people, deserve to live in freedom, dignity, and safety. It’s not too late for Imagine Dragons to do the right thing. It would be a meaningful contribution towards freedom, justice and equality for all.”
-
The Barbican, Censorship, and Anti-Palestinian Racism
Artists for Palestine UK is shocked at reports that the Barbican told a Palestinian artist to avoid talking about freedom for Palestinians. Having welcomed a co-founder of Palestinian station Radio Alhara to give a talk on “the radical nature of radio”, the Barbican reportedly instructed him to “safeguard the audience” by keeping his comments about…
-
Influential cultural figures around the world praise Barcelona’s suspension of ties with Israel
Actors Mark Ruffalo, Miriam Margolyes and Alia Shawkat, authors Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein and 2022 Nobel laureate for literature Annie Ernaux are among more than 50 public figures to welcome the mayor of Barcelona’s suspension of ties with official Israeli institutions.
-
Leading artists oppose Barbican’s partnership with apartheid Israeli embassy
More than fifty artists, including poet and writer Benjamin Zephaniah, actor Miriam Margolyes, DJ The Blessed Madonna and Turner Prize co-winning artist Tai Shani have called on London arts venue the Barbican Centre to end its partnership with the embassy of Israel.
