<nettime> INTERNATIONAL APPEAL FROM PALESTINIAN ARTISTS (please forward)

[JSalloum@aol.com]

INTERNATIONAL APPEAL FROM PALESTINIAN ARTISTS - Please forward.

>An Appeal from Palestinian Artists for Solidarity: End the War!.
>  October 11, 2000. Ramallah, Palestine.

>We, artists and artistic organizations of Palestine, call on you, our 
>peers, colleagues, fellow artists, & intellectuals to help stop the war waged
>against our people.

>Since this war started 13 days ago, we have been living under total Israeli
>siege. Israeli tanks are cordoning off the entrances to our cities.
>Helicopters and snipers are shooting at innocent  demonstrators.  The dead
>have reached a staggering 100. They are of all ages & walks of  life. All
>had their lives ahead of them: A young man was buried who had been  married
>for 4 days. Brilliant college students. Children like Mohammed Durra, whom
>you saw murdered in his father's arms. With the dead, 3,200 wounded. Some
>whose lives will be destroyed forever, with their sight lost, or severe
>motor or neurological handicaps.

>The Gaza airport has been closed. Israeli settlers are descending nightly 
>on their neighboring Palestinian villages, refugee camps and even urban 
areas,
>beating up Palestinians, throwing molotov cocktails inside homes, burning
>olive groves; and kidnapping people & torturing them to death, like Issam
>Judah, in whose funeral procession we marched yesterday.  Many areas are 
>now organizing  self-defense forces afgainst these settlers. In schools,
>children ask about their dead schoolmates. They talk of death, and draw
>pictures of death.
>
>
>How do we live: City centers are dead quiet. Every morning fresh pictures 
>of some of the past day's dead are posted on walls. Newspapers are full of
>cancellation notices and condolences.

>How do we work: Most of us cannot reach our places of work in neighboring
>towns. Concerts, film screenings, plays, rehearsals, exhibits, lectures,
>symposia, have been canceled. Our theaters and
>concerts halls stand empty, while we swell the ranks of marchers in funeral
>processions, visitors to houses of mourning, and hospital visitors.
>
>We call on you in America, Asia, and Europe, because we have heard nothing
>from Israeli artists & intellectuals: We have not seen demonstrations,
>petitions, or protests against this war waged by their
>government. As if they agreed with the racist and absurd assertion that the
>Palestinian leadership is willingly ordering their children to die, and 
>that these children are obeying these "orders"..
>
>We call on you, in the name of our shared humanity, in the name of our
>shared work, to show solidarity with us, like the artistic community around
>the world did with Sarajevo under siege. We call on you to please undertake
>these concrete measures, each according to her/his ability:
>
>1- Please circulate this urgent appeal in your country and outside it,
>2- Please hold artistic solidarity events with Palestine, either with our
>help, or the help of Palestinian/Arab organizations in your country,
>3- Please publish petitions and appeals in your press, &/or march in
>demonstrations for the end to this war against the Palestinian people,
>4- Write/call your local media against biased reporting/writing,
>5- Please call or write your head of government (some Emails provided
>below), local representatives, to call on the government of Israel to end
>immediately the war against us, lift the siege, stop the killing incursions
>of Israeli settlers, & investigate and punish the killers.
>
>
>For further action, you may contact us, or a Palestinian organization
>related to your line of work:
>
>
>* Ashtar Theater:  ashtar@p-ol.com.
>* The Cinema Production & Distribution Center: cpc@p-ol.com
>* The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre:(Arts & literature):
>sakakini@sakakini.org
>* The Popular Arts Center: (Festivals, dance, folklore): pac@palnet.com..

>-------------------------
>Ehud Barak's Office:  barak@pmo.gov.il
>White House:  president@whitehouse.gov
>State Department:  secretary@state.gov
>Hubert Vedrine:  hubert.vedrine@diplomatie.fr

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