> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Leading Artists and Scholars Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/artists-and-scholars-call-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-gaza/ - Published: 2023-10-19T16:25:46.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:09:28.000Z - Description: “We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians,” reads a letter signed by Nan Goldin, Cecilia Vicuña, Barbara Kruger, and others. - Author: Rhea Nayyar - Tags: News, Featured, Israel, Palestine, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:29 (2023, 2024, part 1) Nan Goldin, Barbara Kruger, Tania Bruguera, and Cecilia Vicuña are among thousands of artists, writers, curators, and filmmakers who signed an [open letter](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1e1kTZtiW11KzRD-rWuwEXSj5jTOAE4X4DRuCdy8aAtU/viewform?edit%5Frequested=true&pli=1&ref=hyperallergic.com) demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, allowing aid into the besieged city, and "the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes." The currently circulating letter, reproduced in full below, implores organizations and institutions to break their silence around Israel's human rights violations in the city. "Silence at this urgent time of crisis and escalating genocide is not a politically neutral position," the letter reads. "Over the last few years there have been significant steps to institutionally address social justice and inequality and also for your artistic programmes to benefit from these politics. We now ask that they continue and be extended in recognising the crimes against humanity that the Palestinian people are facing." Laura Poitras, Peter Doig, Michael Rakowitz, Adam Broomberg, and Yto Barrada are among other artists who have endorsed the letter. Academics including Saidiya Hartman, Judith Butler, Christina Sharpe, and Fred Moten are also listed among the signatories. Over [4,200 Palestinian civilians have been killed](https://www.un.org/unispal/document/4200-people-killed-over-one-million-people-displaced-in-just-10-days-ohchr-briefing/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and more than 1 million displaced as the continued Israeli airstrikes reduce large sections of the Gaza Strip to rubble and [resources like food, water, and medical supplies run scarce](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/food-water-and-medicine-run-low-in-gaza-amid-deadly-israeli-airstrikes-delayed-aid?ref=hyperallergic.com). Roughly [half of Gaza's population](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/18/1206897328/half-of-gazas-population-is-under-18-heres-what-that-means-for-the-conflict?ref=hyperallergic.com#:~:text=Of%20the%20more%20than%202,according%20to%20the%20United%20Nations.) of over 2 million is made up of young people under the age of 18. "There is ample evidence that we are witnessing the unfolding of a genocide in which the already precarious lives of Palestinians are deemed unworthy of aid, let alone human rights and justice," a portion of the letter reads, calling for unrestricted humanitarian aid for Palestinians. The ongoing siege on Gaza comes after the territory's governing fundamentalist military movement Hamas launched a multi-faceted attack on Israel on [October 7](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2?ref=hyperallergic.com), killing over 1,300 Israeli civilians and taking nearly 200 of them as hostages. Following the Hamas attack, [Israel issued an evacuation order](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-c8b4fc20e4fd2ef381d5edb7e9e8308c?ref=hyperallergic.com) to some 1.1 million Palestinian civilians of north Gaza, ordering them to relocate to the southern portion of the extremely densely populated territory as the Israel Defense Forces orchestrated [thousands of airstrikes](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/people-in-gaza-describe-living-through-bombings-with-no-way-to-escape?ref=hyperallergic.com). Citing the condemnations from [Amnesty International](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/the-escalating-conflict-in-gaza-and-israel/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the [United Nations](https://palestine.un.org/en/249442-un-country-team-palestine-statement-israel%E2%80%99s-announcement-relocate-residents-gaza-southwards?ref=hyperallergic.com), the [World Health Organization](https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2023-who-pleads-for-immediate-reversal-of-gaza-evacuation-order-to-protect-health-and-reduce-suffering?ref=hyperallergic.com), and [Action Aid](https://actionaid.org/news/2023/evacuation-orders-22-hospitals-across-gaza-breach-international-law-actionaid-warns?ref=hyperallergic.com), the letter's signatories underscore that they "reject violence against all civilians, regardless of their identity" and call for "ending the root cause of violence: oppression, and the occupation." Read the open letter below, followed by an initial list of signatories. --- The arts community is diverse and crosses borders, nationalities, systems of faith and belief. We as artists, writers, curators, filmmakers, publishers and workers who produce work, collaborate and communicate, create the core around which institutions and organisations revolve, need to be assured that these are not just safe but humane spaces. We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes. We demand that the institutional silence around the ongoing humanitarian crisis that 2.3 million Palestinians are facing in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip be broken immediately. In the words of the UN resident humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territory, “it’s about the loss of our humanity if the international community allows this to continue. What we are seeing now is simply inhumane.” Silence at this urgent time of crisis and escalating genocide is not a politically neutral position. Over the last few years there have been significant steps to institutionally address social justice and inequality. Your artistic programs benefit from these politics. We now ask that they continue and be extended in recognising the crimes against humanity that the Palestinian people are facing. The ongoing bombing of Gaza and the killing and forced displacement of its residents has been condemned by Amnesty International, the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and Action Aid. These, amongst other global bodies, have indicated that the collective punishment of Gaza civilians—which includes the killing of aid workers, journalists, and medics, as well as the destruction of all infrastructure and life-sustaining resources, cutting off water, food, electricity and medicine—amounts to a war crime. There is ample evidence that we are witnessing the unfolding of a genocide in which the already precarious lives of Palestinians are deemed unworthy of aid, let alone human rights and justice. With impunity, Israel has already undertaken 3 of the 5 defining acts outlined by the [United Nations Genocide Convention](https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml?ref=hyperallergic.com). As Raz Segal, an Israeli historian and scholar of genocide, writes, “Israel has also intensified its 16-year siege of Gaza—the [longest in modern history](https://watson.brown.edu/cmes/events/2022/gaza-longest-siege-modern-history?ref=hyperallergic.com), in clear [violation of international humanitarian law](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract%5Fid=2214163&ref=hyperallergic.com)—to a ‘complete siege.’” This directive to accomplish the systemic destruction of Palestinians and Palestine society in Gaza, comes directly from Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who has described his targets in degraded terms, as [“human animals.”](https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza?ref=hyperallergic.com) **We, the undersigned, reject violence against all civilians, regardless of their identity, and we call for ending the root cause of violence: oppression, and the occupation.** We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask arts organisations to show solidarity with cultural workers and call on our governments to demand an immediate ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter unhindered. We believe that the arts organisations and institutions whose mission it is to protect freedom of expression, to foster education, community, and creativity, also stand for freedom of life and the basic right of existence. We call on you to refuse inhumanity, which has no place in life or art, and make a public demand from our governments to call for a ceasefire. Signed*:* Nan Goldin Laura Poitras Eyal Weizman Saidiya Hartman Peter Doig Barbara Kruger Christina Sharpe Judith Butler Ariella Azoulay David Velasco Rachel Kushner Cecilia Vicuña Gabi Ngcobo Marina Warner Brian Eno Joan Jonas Fred Moten Negar Azimi Nicole Eisenman The Otolith Group Jarvis Cocker Dionne Brand M. NourbeSe Philip Sylvia Federici Shahidul Alam Sky Hopinka Wu Tsang Linder Sterling Martin Margiela A.L. Steiner Hedi El Kholti Sophia Al-Maria Zoe Leonard Tania Bruguera Michael Rakowitz Rosalind Nashashibi Adam Broomberg Kara Walker Cameron Rowland Omar Berrada Françoise Vergès Hoor Al-Qasimi Andrea Fraser Mykki Blanco Anne Boyer Olivia Laing Meriem Bennani Johanna Fateman Kathleen Hanna Hannah Black Mati Diop Doreen St. Félix Isabella Hammad Cédric Fauq Seth Price Ligia Lewis Katharina Grosse Sunil Gupta Issy Wood Shumon Basar Moyra Davey Danielle Shreir Jeremy Deller Tomás Saraceno Yto Barrada Zeina Durra Elisabeth Lebovici Mark Leckey Tony Cokes Maxine Peake Daniel Sea Martine Syms Paige K. Bradley Sina Najafi Candice Hopkins Helen O'Malley Ariana Reines Myriam Ben Salah Helen Cammock Sin Wai Kin Ali Cherri Tobi Haslett Sarah Nicole Prickett Fatima Al Qadiri Christodoulos Panayiotu Jota Mombaça Anthea Hamilton Ruba Katrib Rirkrit Tiravanija Siobhan Davies Gini Alhadeff Heman Chong Kostas Stasinopoulos Denise Ferreira da Silva Tai Shani Emily Jacir Nour Mobarak Eric Baudelaire Travis Alabanza Thea Djordjaze Mandy El-Sayegh Larry Achiampong Lynne Tillman Leslie Dick Lisa Robertson Jennifer Krasinski Jen Kabat Catherine Quan Damman Julia Bryan-Wilson Blair McClendon Bhanu Kapil Victoria Adukwei Bulley Precious Okoyomon Jesse Luke Darling Dora Budor Adam Linder P. Staff Haris Epaminonda Florence Peake Zadie Xa Cécile B. Evans Laure Prouvost Lawrence Abu Hamdan Hari Kunzru Lydia Ourahmane Iris Touliatou Massinissa Selmani Beatriz Santiago Muñoz Emily LaBarge Sophie Jung Susan Sentler Maxwell Sterling Oreet Ashery Neil Beloufa Shahryar Nashat Brian Dillon Gareth Evans Louisa Buck Zack Hatfield Ellen Grieg Helen Nisbet bones tan jones Rebecca Lamarche Vadel A.K. Burns Sharon Hayes Kate Cooper Johanna Hedva Jumana Manna Yuri Pattison Lola Olufemi Danielle Dean Maeve Brennan Basma al-Sharif Simon Fujiwara Lydia Yee Amal Khalaf Christelle Oyiri Adham Faramawy Gray Wielebinski Charles Asprey Zinzi Minott Yvonne Jones Carl Gent Lizzie Graham Jacob Bard-Rosenberg Rebecca Lennon Alia Farid Carolina Caycedo Alice Theobald Hamza Badran Abdullah Al Mutairi Rahila Haque Rebecca Jagoe Rosa Johan Uddoh Aura Satz Emily Pope Lubna Chowdhary Sarah Shin Sam Keogh Karen Di Franco Billy Klotsa Kalliopi Tsipni Kolaza Zarina Muhammad Gabrielle de la Puente **Editor's note 10/19/23 5:40pm EDT:* Since the publication of this article, additional names have been added to the list of signatories, as published in* [*Artforum*](https://www.artforum.com/columns/open-letter-art-community-cultural-organizations-518019/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*. Our story has been updated to reflect this.* **Editor's note 10/24/23 3pm EDT:* Two artists' names were removed from the signatory list at their request.*