Italian Arts United For Palestine
We, art and performing arts workers in Italy, unite our voices in this open letter to break the silence that pervades much of the country’s cultural institutions regarding the ongoing genocide by the State of Israel against the Palestinian population.
This military operation has caused in less than two months over 15,523 deaths and 1,900,000 displaced people (UNRWA, 12/04/23) [1], perpetrating war crimes including the intentional targeting of civilian structures, press, schools, and hospitals. This has sparked a wave of international outrage, followed by historic global mobilizations in solidarity with Palestine and its people that cannot be ignored.
We invite individuals, collectives, independent entities, and institutions that make up the Italian artistic and cultural sector to endorse this letter with us, committing to the following demands:
We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and our support for their struggle for justice, liberation, and self-determination, recognizing that what Israel denies is their very right to exist.
We denounce the national policies that, starting from abstention during the UN General Assembly vote on the Gaza ceasefire resolution (10/27/23) [2] until today, have shown a grave combination of indifference and complicity toward the ongoing genocide, and an unacceptable defense of Israel’s militaristic and colonial policies.
We acknowledge that the ongoing massacre is only the latest stage of a broader ethnic cleansing strategy, promoted by Zionist policies and developed over 75 years of colonial occupation, depriving the Palestinian people of their rights under a regime of outright apartheid (Amnesty International, 2022) [3], with repeated and unpunished violations of international laws and UN resolutions.
We reject the double standards and selective empathy with which political institutions and mainstream media render the genocide of the Palestinian population invisible, effectively denying it, and suppress all criticism of the brutality of the Israeli government.
We reject accusations of antisemitism against any critical perspective on the Israeli colonial project. We denounce all forms of antisemitism, Islamophobia, as well as all other forms of racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination.
In recent years, our sector has seen growing discourse, practices, and programming dedicated to systemic oppression, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, transfeminism, human rights, and social transformation. We claim this process of awareness as the ethical and political foundation from which to express our commitment. We demand responsibility from those who have benefited from this process, capitalizing on oppressed and marginalized subjectivities, identities, and bodies, to take a stance on the current situation. There are no political theories without political practices and public responsibility. From today, we commit to monitoring the positions adopted in response to the ongoing genocide and Israel’s colonial domination, as well as all others.
We speak with an explicitly intersectional perspective, rejecting the instrumentalization of one marginalized group to legitimize the oppression of another. We denounce the rhetoric of Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” which justifies its colonial project by instrumentalizing integration policies aimed at LGBTQI+ communities as a sign of democracy. Systems of oppression are interconnected; no one is free until we are all free. We also recognize the soft power strategy employed over the years by Israeli governments in promoting and financing artistic and cultural institutions. There can be no critical culture and independent art in a context of occupation.
We call on individuals, collectives, independent entities, and cultural institutions (in the figures of their presidents and/or directors) to join us in taking a stand demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza; the entry of humanitarian aid; the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory as requested by independent UN experts (11/16/23) [4].
We invite support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movements against the State of Israel and to boycott, as far as possible, companies and organizations that support its colonial project, including cultural institutions, from which we ask transparency regarding their relations with Israel.
Actions of stigmatization, intimidation, and censorship are increasing within the Western art system against cultural workers and organizations who have spoken out against the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli government. To art workers, who are in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and want to take a public stand but feel intimidated by possible repercussions on their lives and work, we say: you are not alone. AWI - Art Workers Italia and Campo Innocente commit, with the monitoring and political pressure tools at our disposal, to supporting workers in protecting their autonomy of thought and expression. Simultaneously, AWI is working to identify a legal support point in Italy. Meanwhile, we point to the European Legal Support Center [5], an organization that legally defends those subjected to censorship and intimidation.
We will read, publish, and spread this letter in every way and at every public occasion in which we are involved.
[1] unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report...
[2] https://peacemaker.un.org/middleeast-resolution338
[3] amnesty.it/apartheid-israeliano-contro-i-palestine...