Category: Israel’s violence against Palestinians

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’ 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.

Watch the video here:

The film highlights the testimonies of doctors who have returned from Gaza – who have survived the deliberate targeting of hospitals and health facilities, who are not among the 986 medical workers killed by Israeli forces. Those who remain are witnesses to a situation just as harrowing as that described by Dr Abu-Sittah. 

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‘Every Day a New Atrocity’: Juliet Stevenson calls on government to end supply of arms to Israel

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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.

The film was developed by Artists for Palestine UK in support of the legal campaign by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and leading Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, to suspend all UK weapons sales to Israel. Although the government has suspended the export of some weapons, it continues to license the supply of parts that keep Israel’s lethal F-35 jets flying.  Lawyers from GLAN and Al-Haq have warned the government of their criminal liability over the continued exports.

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Top filmmakers urge New York Film Festival to drop sponsor complicit in Israel’s war crimes

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Mike Leigh, Julia Loktev, and James Schamus among dozens of filmmakers calling on NYFF to cut ties with Bloomberg Philanthropies over links to Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

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”.

The signatories, who include directors, producers, actors, editors, and other film professionals represented at NYFF, urge the festival to end its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies which they say is
“directly implicated in facilitating settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and denying Palestinians their basic rights.”

The statement, published today in Screen Slate, says that over the past year, the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership program has trained mayors and city officials who represent
“more than 40 West Bank settlements, which were found illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2024.” 

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Top Artists Join Campaign to End UK Arms Sales to Israel

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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.

The five hard-hitting films are the result of a collaboration between Artists for Palestine UK, Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. GLAN and Al-Haq have launched a legal action against the UK government to suspend weapons sales to Israel.

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Leading Artists to Keir Starmer: Commit to Stopping Arms Sales to Israel

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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.

Signatories to the letter include Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed and director
Asif Kapadia, singer Paloma Faith, actors including BAFTA-winning Steve
Coogan, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Paapa Essiedu, Dame Harriet Walter, Joe
Alwyn and Lena Heady.

The call comes amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which
recently saw Israeli strikes on a designated ‘safe area’ in Rafah kill over 50
civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing
arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and
crimes against humanity. Continue reading →

Olivia Colman among 1000+ artists accusing art institutions of censorship on Palestine

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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), Amir El-Masry (The Crown) and Lolly Adefope (Ghosts), 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”. 

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On Speaking and Silence: the New McCarthyism

For anyone who cares about their fellow human beings in Gaza, nothing is more important at this moment than to speak out.

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. In every sector of society people horrified by the attack on Gaza are speaking out. The huge demonstrations in the major cities of the world reflect the strength of public feeling.

Among cultural workers, we have seen an outpouring of solidarity, and resistance to attempts to undermine it. Here are just a few examples, from Britain and the US. 

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Thousands of visual artists and curators signed an open letter published in Artforum magazine that expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza. A behind the scenes campaign by a number of powerful art dealers and collectors aimed to pressure individual artists to retract. A week later, the magazine’s owners fired its editor, David Velasco. 

“I resent these cowardly bullying and blackmail campaigns to distract everyone in the art world from the central demand of the letter, which was: cease-fire!”

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Tilda Swinton among 2000+ artists calling for Gaza ceasefire

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  • They accuse governments of “aiding and abetting” Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza
  • Palestinians face “collective punishment on an unimaginable scale”
  • Governments should “end their military and political support for Israel’s actions”

Renowned actors Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, 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.”

The artists, including Robert del Naja and playwrights Tanika Gupta and Abbie Spallen, condemn “every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them”.

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Reflections on violence, oppression and a just peace

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‘We all deserve liberation, safety, and equality. The only way to get there is by uprooting the sources of the violence.’ Jewish Voice for Peace 

‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.’ Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Minister of Defence 

Artists for Palestine UK responds with horror and sadness to the violent loss of life across Palestine/Israel, that continues as we write. We mourn every death. And we redouble 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.

Al Haq, Palestine’s largest Human Rights organisation,  said, in coordination with  Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: 

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Susan Sarandon, Claire Foy, Mark Ruffalo, Eric Cantona call for an immediate end to Israeli attacks on Palestinian human rights groups

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More than 100 public figures urge the international community to protect Palestinian human rights defenders.

Musicians Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Jarvis Cocker and Massive Attack, film directors Laura Poitras, Jim Jarmusch, Costa Gravas and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, actors Mark Rylance, Tilda Swinton, Simon Pegg, Richard Gere, authors Philip Pullman, Naomi Klein, Irvine Welsh, Colm Tóibín and Monica Ali — are among dozens of high profile figures who have signed a statement [1] criticising the Israeli government for launching what they say is:

“An unprecedented and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders beginning with the designation […] of six leading Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist” groups.” 

The statement goes on to warn that the Israeli military order that outlaws six “most eminent” Palestinian organizations in the occupied West Bank:

“…puts at risk not just the organizations themselves, but the entire Palestinian civil society and the tens of thousands of Palestinians they serve everyday.”

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Israel Must Be Held To Account For Ongoing Violence Against Palestinians

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We share with millions our anger at the indiscriminate and pitiless bombing of the Gaza Strip; at the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah; at the armed invasion of the Al-Aqsa compound during the holy month of Ramadan; at the brutal attacks on peaceful protests in the Occupied West Bank, and on Palestinian citizens of Israel in towns within Israel. All this must stop immediately.

The violence the Israeli authorities are meting out is the same violence that has displaced, repressed and fragmented Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948, when over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly removed from their homes. Israel’s policy of forced displacement, and the ongoing police repression that punishes any form of protest or peaceful resistance by Palestinians, has been taking place in many forms for decades, often without it registering in our news media. Continue reading →