When conflict strikes: the role of cultural networks in times of war
Introducing an online repository of responses to the war in Gaza.
Last week marked one year since the onset of the atrocities in Gaza, a milestone that continues to weigh heavily on the global conscience. Culture Action Europe, as an organization but most importantly as a network, stands in solidarity with the people affected by the war.
The Culture Action Europe (CAE) board and team have been discussing in depth the question of how to react to the Israel-Palestine war, both the brutal attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 as well as the unprecedented devastation that has followed in Gaza and recently in Lebanon. When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 CAE issued a statement fairly promptly. However the network has been silent in the public realm in respect of other wars and subsequent humanitarian catastrophes. The war in Israel-Palestine has challenged this silence.
Since then the internal conversations have carried on, led by the determination to act in the light of ever-increasing human atrocities, notwithstanding the feeling that whatever we did would somehow be perceived as performative or limited or outside the scope of the CAE mandate. During the CAE Members’ Forum in Malmö members were clear and outspoken and defined the need to be vocal, whenever artistic freedom of our community, our members or potential members and their communities, are under threat in whatever way. Reference was made to statements, such as the one published by On the Move, which CAE supports in its condemnation of,
“the continuing devastation in Gaza and the failure of global civil society and international powers to halt the carnage, and we believe it remains essential for those in the cultural sector to continue to voice their solidarity with artists, cultural actors, and all people impacted.”
Setting up a repository
The statement of On the Move is only one of the many statements and actions deployed by CAE members. As a network of networks, organisations and individuals, defining itself as representing the ´diversity´ of the cultural ecosystem in Europe, CAE wants to demonstrate how that ecosystem has responded and will continue to respond.
Acknowledging a similar action taken by ELIA, we invite all CAE members to contribute to an Online Repository of responses to the Gaza war, with examples of how they have responded and continue to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the violations of human rights and international law in Palestine and Israel.
We hope this collection will help to form a comprehensive picture of how this conflict and humanitarian crisis is impacting Cultural and Creative Sectors in Europe and beyond. Through this knowledge base we hope to facilitate learning from each others’ statements, research and activities in support of those artists, arts organisations and citizens that suffer from the war.