Over 2,000 UK artists call for immediate Gaza ceasefire, decry Israeli 'war crimes' in open letter

Over 2,000 cultural figures in the UK have signed a letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to Israeli "war crimes" in an open letter on Tuesday.

Producers, curators, writers, DJs, architects and designers were among the signatories in support of the "global movement against the destruction of Gaza and the mass displacement of the Palestinian people". 

"Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them," said the letter, whose signatories included well-known actors Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, Steve Coogan, and Miriam Margolyes.

The letter condemned "every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them". 

The signatories, who also include Massive Attack frontman Robert del Naja and playwrights Tanika Gupta and Abbie Spallen, referred in their letter to the statement by Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant in which he said Palestinians were "human animals", responding that Palestinians "have become people to whom almost anything can be done". 

Gallant made the comments on 9 October when announcing a "complete siege" on the heavily populated enclave, which cut off water, power, food and medicine from reaching 2.3 million Palestinians for days.

Israel's fierce and indiscriminate airstrikes have killed 3,478 people, including over 1,000 children in the Gaza Strip and injured over 12,000. An Israeli strike on the Baptist Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday killed 471 people, mostly displaced Palestinians who were looking to find shelter from the Israeli strikes.

The indiscriminate strikes and the Israeli army's orders to the people of Gaza to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip had raised fears of ethnic cleansing and a "second Nabka".

"Palestinians whose grandparents were forced out of their homes at the barrel of a gun [in 1948] are again being told to flee – or face collective punishment on an unimaginable scale," the letter said.

Tilda Swinton among 2000+ artists calling for ceasefire

Miriam Margolyes, Steve Coogan, Asif Kapadia, Peter Mullan & Khalid Abdalla among more than 2000 artists saying: “Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them.”https://t.co/vNI1qmZTKN

— Artists for Palestine UK 🍉 (@Art4PalestineUK) October 17, 2023

The letter cited the UN’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths, who has said that "the spectre of death" was hanging over Gaza, and called for "an immediate ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter unhindered".

Celebrities of all stripes have taken to social media platforms to weigh in on the war on Gaza over the last 11 days, with a number of Western artists having their contracts terminated over their pro-Palestinian stance.