Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello, Mogwai, Pulp, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Brian Eno and Fucked Up are among 4000 artists calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Under the collective banner Musicians for Palestine, the artists have signed an open letter urging for a cessation of hostilities in the region where, according to the latest figures from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, over 16,000 Palestinians - including an estimated 6911 children - have been killed in the past six weeks. The attacks on Gaza came in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, in which over 1400 people lost their lives.
A post on the musicians4palestine Instagram account reads: "We cannot be silent. Today, we demand an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza, and an end to the siege. The day after, our vision of a just and peaceful future for all must be our most urgent task. We urge everyone who shares that vision to join us."
The full text of the open letter reads:
"We cannot be silent.
This is a moment of truth for millions worldwide who prize human dignity, and as musicians we are no exception. We stand for life, for love, for justice, and for peace. We mourn with all in Palestine/Israel who have lost loved ones. We share their grief and their pain.
The unfolding human catastrophe for 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, is “a textbook case of genocide,” in the words of both the prominent US-based Israeli scholar of genocide Raz Segal and leading former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber.
We cannot be neutral in the face of such injustice.
We cannot be silent as 17 years of Israeli blockade, now a “complete siege,” have made Gaza extremely unliveable. Almost all of its water is unfit for human consumption. Its healthcare system has largely collapsed. The majority of its children are anaemic, with many suffering from severe malnutrition.
As musicians, we uplift the voice of the oppressed. We unflinchingly condemn oppression in all forms, just as we condemn harming civilians, without hesitation, no matter their identity. As the emancipatory Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire reminds us, to end all violence we must work tirelessly to end its root cause, oppression.
We cannot be silent after 75 years of Israel’s military occupation and system of apartheid against Palestinians – as leading international,. Palestinian and Israeli as human rights organizations have described it.
We stand firm against all forms of racism, including anti-Blackness, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. Those who dehumanize, demonize or collectively blame entire communities or peoples can only hinder our collective liberation.
We speak out together in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equal rights. We uphold the freedom of grassroots activists and artists worldwide to advocate and engage in peaceful means to achieve accountability, to fight injustice, and to pursue freedom, a just peace, and dignity.
We cannot be silent. We draw inspiration from Artists Against Apartheid that helped end apartheid in South Africa. We refuse to let our music be used to whitewash oppression and human rights violations anywhere. We insist that all governments stop sending weapons and military funding to Israel and to any other state involved in crimes against humanity.
Today, we demand an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza, and an end to the siege. The day after, our vision of a just and peaceful future for all must be our most urgent task. We urge everyone who shares that vision to join us."
Other signatories on the letter include Denzel Curry, At The Drive-In's Cedric Bixler Zavala, Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, Primal Scream, and Young Fathers.
Last week artists including Enter Shikari, Architects and The Last Dinner Party signed a #MusicForACeasefire open letter initiated by the Peace and Justice Project.
