The music industry is officially taking a stance against Israeli occupation. More than 600 artists have signed an open letter, titled #MusiciansForPalestine, in support of Palestinians.
The letter is signed by some of the industry’s biggest heavyweights, including Noname, Talib Kweli, Vic Mensa, Mustafa the Poet and Majid Al Maskati alongside the likes of Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan, Iraqi rapper Narcy, and Palestinian DJs Simi & Haze.
“As musicians, we cannot be silent,” reads the letter, “Today it is essential that we stand with Palestine.”
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“We call for you to join us with your name in refusing to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions, and by standing firm in your support of the Palestinian people and their human right to sovereignty and freedom. We believe this is crucial to one day live in a world without segregation and apartheid,” it continues.
The #MusiciansforPalestine letter has been welcomed by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BDS).
“It’s crucial that we amplify this cause and stand for Palestinian rights at this critical juncture,” says Narcy in a statement. “The bombing of besieged Gaza, and the imminent risk of ethnic cleansing in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem brought the dispossession Palestinians have faced over the past 73 years to the world’s attention.”
Rage Against the Machine added “The violence and atrocities we are witnessing in Sheikh Jarrah, the Al Aqsa compound and Gaza are a continuation of decades of Israel’s brutal apartheid and violent occupation of Palestine. We stand with the Palestinian people as they resist this colonial terror in all its forms.”