On Speaking and Silence: the New McCarthyism
For anyone who cares about their fellow human beings in Gaza, nothing is more important at this moment than to speak out.
Israel and its allies are trying to build a wall of silence around their devastation of Gaza. Around the world, those who seek to break through it are having to contend with an extraordinary and shameful campaign of pressure and threats. No-one who speaks out, from the UN Secretary-General to a London tube-driver, is exempt.
Yet the breakthrough has happened. In every sector of society people horrified by the attack on Gaza are speaking out. The huge demonstrations in the major cities of the world reflect the strength of public feeling.
Among cultural workers, we have seen an outpouring of solidarity, and resistance to attempts to undermine it. Here are just a few examples, from Britain and the US.
1.
Thousands of visual artists and curators signed an open letter published in Artforum magazine that expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza. A behind the scenes campaign by a number of powerful art dealers and collectors aimed to pressure individual artists to retract. A week later, the magazine’s owners fired its editor, David Velasco.
“I resent these cowardly bullying and blackmail campaigns to distract everyone in the art world from the central demand of the letter, which was: cease-fire!”
Firing Velasco did not stop the movement. Velasco responded, saying, “I’ve no regrets… I’m disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure.” The next day artists Nan Goldin and Nicole Eisenman announced they would no longer work with Artforum. Eisenman, who currently has a solo exhibition at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, said: “I want to echo what activists have been yelling in the streets: Not in my name. This war will not be done in my name. I resent these cowardly bullying and blackmail campaigns to distract everyone in the art world from the central demand of the letter, which was: cease-fire!”
Nearly fifty Artforum employees and contributors have now signed a letter demanding that Velasco be reinstated, saying his termination “carries chilling implications for Artforum’s editorial independence”. And three senior members of the editorial team have resigned in protest saying the firing is “unacceptable”.
“I have no regrets about anything I have said or done in regards to Palestine, Israel, or the occupation and war.”
2.
Separately, nearly 800 writers signed an open letter published in the London Review of Books warning of “grave crimes against humanity” and calling for an immediate ceasefire. Last week, New York’s premier cultural centre the 92nd Street Y decided to abruptly cancel a scheduled reading by one of the letter’s signatories, Pulitzer prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Following the cancellation, the director and programming staff resigned their posts. The rest of the 92nd Street Y’s poetry reading season has been “put on pause” following withdrawals from other writers. Viet Thanh Nguyen, who relocated his reading to a new venue, said in a statement: “I have no regrets about anything I have said or done in regards to Palestine, Israel, or the occupation and war.”
“There’s an atmosphere that is wholly intolerant of any expression of sympathy for Palestinians living under occupation, any discussion of the root causes of the conflict.“
3.
In London, the launch for Nathan Thrall’s book ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story’ at Conway Hall was cancelled at short notice following a ‘recommendation’ by the police. Thrall said: “There’s an atmosphere that is wholly intolerant of any expression of sympathy for Palestinians living under occupation, any discussion of the root causes of the conflict. … For events around that sort of a book to be cancelled… is outrageous.”
4.
A couple of weeks later a long-planned London event organised by Palfest, the Palestine Festival of Literature, was cancelled by its host, the Royal Geographical Society. But the event found a home at the National Education Union, where hundreds packed the auditorium to listen to Soweto Kinch, Tamim al-Barghouti, Harriet Walter, Julie Christie and others.
“Hunting for a particular combination of words in every single piece of writing – no matter its focus – is a strategy. The goal is not to fight antisemitism. It’s to make people fearful to speak up against Israel’s ongoing genocidal violence for fear of being fired/smeared”.
Naomi Klein, October 28th 2023
The intimidation and suppression faced by Velasco and numerous artists are incomparably less brutal than that suffered by Palestinians for generations. Palestinians, as Naomi Klein wrote today in her powerful rejection of “McCarthyite censorship”, are paying the highest price and have done for decades. Attempts to silence protesting voices in other countries are nonetheless part of the ongoing attack on the Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank and beyond. A people deprived of solidarity, a people whose history cannot be spoken, is a people stripped of its defences. Censorship protects those who inflict violence on them.
Following Israel’s threats to Al Jazeera this week, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of journalist Wael Al Dahdouh were killed by an airstrike. Al Dahdouh’s colleague Tamer Al Misshal said, “Wael has continued to report on Israeli atrocities despite the ongoing threats against him and his family, and he’s refused to leave Gaza in order to convey to the world what is happening there. His voice will go on – that we can guarantee. All our voices will go on, and we’ll continue to cover this assault to get the truth out every day.”
As of last night, many of those voices have been silenced. Internet, cellular and landline services have been cut off in Gaza. Palestinians face a complete communications black-out amidst an unprecedented bombing campaign. Israel is seeking to separate Gaza from the world.
Silence is enabling war crimes on a horrifying scale. We refuse silence.
The above was written on Saturday 28th October
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