100+ Artists Demand Justice for Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
Greater than 100 artists, together with outstanding filmmakers, writers, and musicians, signed an open letter revealed by Artists for Palestine UK condemning Israel’s homicide of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh within the metropolis of Jenin within the northern West Financial institution on Could 11. It calls for “full accountability for the perpetrators of this crime and everybody concerned in authorizing it.”
Signatories embrace movie administrators Pedro Almodóvar, Boots Riley, and Jim Jarmusch; actors and celebrities Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon; novelists Colm Tóibín, Yann Martel, and Arundhati Roy; musicians Brian Eno and Nicolás Jaar; and political activist and author Angela Davis.
Abu Akleh, who was 51 years outdated on the time of demise and who has been referred to as “the voice of Palestine to the remainder of the Arab world and its diaspora,” was an Al Jazeera journalist who reported on human rights abuses carried out within the Occupied Palestinian Territories for over 20 years. After she was killed whereas masking a raid in Jenin, a number of witnesses — together with her producer, who was additionally shot — stated that Israeli troopers have been liable for her demise. Nonetheless, Israel pinned her demise on Palestinian militants. Immediately, Could 19, the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) launched Abu Akleh was killed in an “lively fight scenario.”
The letter contextualizes Abu Akleh’s killing as a part of a sample of violence perpetrated by the Israeli state in opposition to members of the press, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Data’s estimate that no less than 45 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces (and this occurs to be one of many extra conservative estimates). In line with Amnesty Worldwide, extra have been killed in armed hostilities in Israel and Palestine prior to now two months than in any comparable interval since 2008. The letter additionally condemns Israeli forces’ harassment and assault of grievers carrying Abu Aqleh’s coffin to a funeral service final Friday, Could 13. And it reasserts Amnesty Worldwide, Human Rights Watch, and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem’s verdict that Israel is an apartheid state.
“For a few years Palestinian human rights and civil society teams have been calling on the worldwide neighborhood to take proportional, focused measures to carry Israel to account for its crimes, and to finish its impunity,” the letter notes. “We totally help this name.”
The letter criticizes the “hypocrisy” that “Western powers” have proven in giving Israel free passes regardless of its multi-decade assault on human rights, and urges them to “act with consistency within the software of worldwide regulation and human rights.” Each the Biden administration and the UN Safety Council have referred to as for a clear investigation of the killing, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has promised Abu Aqleh’s household that the US will insist her demise be completely investigated.
Learn the letter, reproduced in full, under:
We’re deeply disturbed by the Israeli occupation forces’ killing of the extremely revered Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as she arrived, carrying a clearly marked press vest, to report on an Israeli incursion within the occupied metropolis of Jenin final Wednesday. As we grieve her loss, we name for full accountability for the perpetrators of this crime and everybody concerned in authorizing it.
The assault by closely armed Israeli forces on Palestinian mourners additional dismayed and horrified us. Troopers beat and kicked mourners and pallbearers within the grounds of the St. Joseph Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem, to forestall them from carrying Abu Akleh’s coffin and marching to the church for the deliberate funeral service.
What are we to make of the brazenness and cruelty of this assault on human dignity?
The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh is a grave breach of worldwide humanitarian regulation and an assault on journalism and freedom of expression. UN and worldwide human rights specialists have stated that it might represent a struggle crime and ought to be topic to an impartial, clear worldwide investigation. But, it’s removed from being an remoted occasion.
Israeli forces have killed 45 journalists since 2000, injuring many extra, merely for doing their job. These crimes are a part of a sample of violence, harassment, and intimidation in opposition to Palestinian journalists who’re shining a lightweight on what Amnesty Worldwide, Human Rights Watch, and Israel’s main human rights group, B’Tselem, have described as a system of apartheid imposed on the Palestinian individuals.
For a few years Palestinian human rights and civil society teams have been calling on the worldwide neighborhood to take proportional, focused measures to carry Israel to account for its crimes, and to finish its impunity. We totally help this name.
When Israel’s insurance policies blatantly violate worldwide legal guidelines and norms, it’s as a result of Western powers have constantly offered diplomatic cowl for it to take action. It has not gone unnoticed that whereas our governments have rushed to impose blanket boycotts and sanctions in response to Russia’s unlawful invasion of the Ukraine and the cruelty of its assaults on a civilian inhabitants, the identical governments proceed to fund and defend Israel’s decades-long occupation and grave human rights violations in opposition to Palestinians.
In the meantime, our governments are taking anti-democratic measures to repress their very own residents’ nonviolent campaigns of stress geared toward holding Israel, and the businesses and establishments which can be complicit in its system of oppression, to account.
We name on our governments to finish their hypocrisy and to behave with consistency within the software of worldwide regulation and human rights. We name on them to take significant measures to make sure accountability for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and all different Palestinian civilians. There have to be no double requirements on the subject of the essential human proper to freedom from persecution and oppression and the proper to life and to dignity.
SIGNED:
Khalid Abdalla, actor
Hany Abu Assad, movie director
Tunde Adebimpe, musician
Ahsan Akbar, poet
Yasmine Al Massri, actor
Omar Al Qattan, movie director
Monica Ali, creator
Candace Allen author
Pedro Almodovar, movie director
Anthony Anaxagorou, poet
Ramin Bahrani, movie director
Adam Bakri, actor
Saleh Bakri, actor
Clio Barnard, movie director
Joslyn Barnes, producer
David Barsamian, creator
Roy Battersby, TV director
Sarah Beddington, filmmaker, artist
Ronan Bennett, creator, screenwriter
Frances Black, singer
Nicholas Blincoe, creator
Iciar Bollain, movie director
Juan Diego Botto, actor
Haim Bresheeth, filmmaker, scholar
Victoria Brittain, author
Adam Broomberg, artist
David Calder, actor
Carmen Callil, writer, editor
Eric Cantona, actor
Iggor Cavalera, musician
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, choreographer
Julie Christie, actor
Isabel Coixet, movie director
Steve Coogan, actor, comic
Mark Cousins, author, director
Liam Cunningham, actor
Selma Dabbagh, author
Cherien Dabis, movie director
William Dalrymple, creator
Angela Davis, creator
Andy de la Tour, actor
Jeremy Deller, artist
Stephen Dillane, actor
Sara Driver, movie director
Ben Ehrenreich, creator
Brian Eno, musician
Jodie Evans, producer
Shepard Fairey, artist
Bella Freud, designer
Peter Gabriel, musician
Trevor Griffiths, playwright, screenwriter
Kathryn Hahn, actor
Charles Hayward, musican
M Imhotep, musician
Nicolás Jaar, musician
Gemma Jackson, manufacturing designer
Jim Jarmusch, movie director
Asif Kapadia, movie director
Aki Kaurismaki, movie director
John Keane, artist
Brigid Keenan, creator
Patrick Keiller, filmmaker
Peter Kennard, artist
AL Kennedy, creator
Jennine Khalik, journalist
Naomi Klein, creator, activist
Peter Kosminsky, screenwriter, director
Jan Kounen, movie director
Nancy Kricorian, creator
Hari Kunzru, creator
Seun Kuti, musician
Lankum, band
Paul Laverty, screenwriter
Mike Leigh, movie director
Laima Leyton musician, artist
Jim Loach, movie director
Ken Loach, movie director
Dónal Lunny, musician
Mahmood Mamdani, creator
Miriam Margolyes, actor
Kika Markham, actor
Yann Martel, creator
Emer Martin, creator
Mai Masri, movie director
Large Assault, band
Rakan Mayası, movie director
Kleber Mendonça Filho, movie director
Christy Moore, musician
Thurston Moore, musician
Tom Morello, musician
Carol Morley, movie director
Laura Mulvey, movie scholar
Karthika Nair, poet
Mira Nair, movie director
Courttia Newland, creator, screenwriter
Pratibha Parmar, movie director
Maxine Peake, actor
Aubrey Powell, designer
Philip Pullman, creator
Stephen Rea, actor
Boots Riley, screenwriter, director
Bruce Robbins, creator, literary scholar
Olga Rodriguez, creator
Jacqueline Rose, creator, scholar
Arundhati Roy, creator
Mark Ruffalo, actor
Alberto San Juan, actor
Susan Sarandon, actor
Alexei Sayle, comic, creator
James Schamus, screenwriter, producer
Nick Seymour, musician
Kamila Shamsie,creator
Tai Shani, artist
Alia Shawkat, actor
Marea Stamper, DJ
Juliet Stevenson, actor
Tilda Swinton, actor
Colm Tóibín, creator
Ricky Tomlinson, actor
Ben UFO, DJ
V (previously Eve Ensler), creator, playwright
Yanis Varoufakis, creator
Mirza Waheed, creator
Harriet Walter, actor
Roger Waters, musician
Irvine Welsh, creator
Monique Wilson, actor, activist
Jane Wilson, artist
Louise Wilson, artist
Michael Winterbottom, movie director
Penny Woolcock, screenwriter, director
Susan Wooldridge, actor
Robert Wyatt, musician