British performers, writers and activists protest Israel’s actions in Gaza outdoors the gates of Downing Road on Could 21, 2025.
Leon Neal/Getty Photos
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Leon Neal/Getty Photos
Greater than 300 cultural figures throughout the UK and Eire have signed a letter demanding a right away ceasefire in Gaza and unrestricted help to individuals there dealing with hunger.
Signatories embody bestselling writers reminiscent of Ian McEwan, Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith and Pico Iyer. Musician Brian Eno and Russell T. Davies, the showrunner of the BBC’s revived Physician Who, additionally signed the letter.
The letter begins with a poem by Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed almost two years in the past in an Israeli airstrike. It asks for an finish to what it calls “the collective silence and inaction” that has adopted tens of hundreds of Palestinian deaths since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed greater than a thousand principally Israeli civilians in communities near the Gaza border.
“The government of Israel has renewed its assault on Gaza with unrestrained brutality,” the letter says. “Public statements by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir openly express genocidal intentions. The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations.”
The letter additionally calls the atrocities dedicated by Hamas “crimes of war” and “crimes against humanity.” It requires the discharge of hostages and denounces antisemitism, anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli prejudice.
“We reject and abhor attacks, hate and violence — in writing, speech and action — against Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish people in all and any form,” the letter says, which additionally calls for sanctions in opposition to the state of Israel if the federal government doesn’t conform to a ceasefire.
