Studio Minailo

For (many) months now, the State of Israel—under the leadership of increasingly authoritarian and violent ministers—has been carrying violent attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This ongoing war, backed and financed by many Western governments, has brought immense suffering to countless civilians.

The spark for this current wave of violence was an attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians—a war crime and violation of human rights. Yet the Israeli government has since used that attack, along with the brutal kidnapping of Israeli citizens, as a pretext for retaliation that has gone far beyond any form of defense and in complete disregard to International Law. This has included the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians, the silencing of Israeli dissidents, and the stifling of any form of opposition—inside and outside of Israel.

I left Israel 27 years ago. I was never a soldier in the Israeli army. I am a Dutch National. I have never received Israeli funding for my work, nor have I been artistically active within Israel. But my family lives there. Many of my dearest friends do as well. And I see how they too are held hostage by their own blood-thirsty government. I stand firmly with those who resist, protest, and demand justice for Palestine.

But above all, I stand with the Palestinian people—in the region and around the world. I stand with their right to live in freedom and dignity, I stand with their basic rights to live safely, and with their demands as enshrined in international law:

• The end of the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem;

• Full and equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel;

• The right of return for Palestinian refugees, displaced by past and ongoing wars.

None of this should be controversial. These are the foundations for peace, for justice, for a shared future built on mutual recognition and human dignity.