2024 was the year of the anti-Palestinian experiment and the active art revolt | Ideas

For artists, it's hard to think about the past year without thinking about Israel's massacre in Gaza that killed more than 45,000 Palestinians according to official figures or more than 220,000 according to actual estimates.

While art is something to be enjoyed, as it enriches all aspects of our lives, identity, and culture, it is also central to struggle. Art is powerful, it allows us to share feelings and stories with people all over the world even if we don't share the same language. Israel knows this, which is why it targets all those who have the talent and passion to convey messages about the horrific reality of Gaza.

Indeed, Israel appears to be engaging in a broader strategy of ethnic cleansing to eliminate the Palestinians who are not only mobilizing their own people, but everyone who fights injustice.

Painters, illustrators, poets, photographers, writers, designers … so many talented Palestinians have been killed. It is up to us to make sure they are not forgotten. They are not numbers, and their work should be remembered, always.

We must tell people about Heba Zagout, a 39-year-old artist, poet and novelist, who was killed along with her two children in an Israeli airstrike. His rich paintings of Palestinian women and the holy sites of Jerusalem were his way of speaking to “foreign countries”.

We must mention the name of the famous painter and art teacher, Fathi Ghaben, whose beautiful works that captured the Palestinian resistance should be seen by all.

We should teach the words of Refaat Alareer, one of the most intelligent writers and teachers of Gaza who taught at the Islamic University of Gaza.

We must mention the artistic beauty of Mahasen al-Khatib, who was killed by an Israeli strike in the Jabalia refugee camp. In his final image, he honored 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalou, who was burned to death during an Israeli attack on the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound.

We should also remind the world of writer Yousef Dawwas, novelist Noor al-din Hajjaj, poet Muhammad Ahmed, designer Walaa al-Faranji, and photographer Majd Arandas.

However, ensuring that their stories and activities are not erased means that we must take action, wherever we are. Honoring these martyrs and celebrating their art requires us to go beyond words.

Some in the arts already know this. They have joined the resistance within the artistic spaces and ensured that the crimes of Israel are condemned on their bases. There have been many acts of solidarity and courage over the past year.

When the Barbican Center in London canceled a talk by Indian writer Pankaj Mishra about the genocide in Palestine in February, art collectors Lorenzo Legada Leviste and Fahad Mayet withdrew Loretta Pettway's artwork from the center's gallery.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to resist institutional violence, and demand transparency and accountability for it … We will never accept scrutiny, oppression and discrimination within its walls,” they wrote.

In March, Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla returned his Goethe medal, awarded for outstanding work by Germany's Goethe Institut, protesting the German government's complicity in the Israeli genocide.

Before the opening of the Venice Biennale in April, more than 24,000 artists from around the world – including former Biennale participants and honorary beneficiaries – signed an open letter asking the organizers to exclude Israel from the event. One Israeli artist finally decided not to open his exhibition.

In September, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri refused to accept an award from the Noguchi Museum in New York after firing three staff members for wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.

Earlier this month, Turner Prize-winning artist Jasleen Kaur used her acceptance speech to condemn the massacre, calling for the freedom of Palestine, an arms embargo and an extension of solidarity with the Palestinians. He stands in solidarity with all those protesting outside the Tate Britain in London, where the event took place, calling for it to divest from funding and projects linked to the Israeli government.

“I want to echo the calls of the protesters outside. A protest by artists, cultural workers, Tate staff, students, with whom I strongly stand,” said Kaur. “This is not a big demand, this should not jeopardize the work or the safety of the artist.”

Despite these acts of solidarity, the brutal banning, inaction, repression and witch-hunting of art related to Palestine has not ended over the past 12 months.

In January, the Indiana University art museum canceled an exhibition by Palestinian artist Samia Halaby.

In May, the city of Vail in Colorado canceled an artist residency by Danielle SeeWalker, a Native American artist who compared the plight of the Palestinian people to the plight of Native Americans.

In July, the Royal Academy of Arts removed two pieces of artwork from its Summer Exhibition of Young Artists because they were related to Israel's war in Gaza. This happened after the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews sent it a letter about the artwork.

In November, the altonale festival in Hamburg canceled an exhibition of works of art produced by children in Gaza after an attack on social media.

These are just a few examples of the great scrutiny Palestinian art and artists and creators who have expressed their solidarity with Palestine have faced in the past year. The silencing and whitewashing of cultural spaces has also taken place at the institutional level.

In the UK, Arts Council England (ACE) has warned arts institutions that “political statements” could have a negative impact on funding deals. This was revealed in a request by the trade union Equity's Freedom of Information, which also showed that the ACE and the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DMCS) even met on “a reputational risk related to the conflict between Israel and Gaza”.

Others have highlighted the contradiction of ACE's actions because it openly expressed solidarity with Ukraine in 2022 after the Russian invasion. But it's not just ACE that has shown double standards in dealing with the carnage in Gaza.

The brilliant Palestinian artist Basma Alsharif exposed the hypocrisy of the establishment in full in her letter to the “Vapid Neoliberal Art World”.

He wrote: “I hope this massacre finds you well. What are you really doing these days? Why did it take you months to write the statement, if you ever did? Why didn't you close it? Why can't you boycott Israel the way you have Russia, the way you did Apartheid South Africa? Have you seen the number of statements there? Open letters? Call for strikes? How many hashtags have you all decided to take to atone for your sins?”

There is no excuse for complacency about the carnage in Gaza. The Palestinian people are facing extermination and our responsibility to them is to ensure that our governments, institutions and industries are not left in silence until they cut ties with Israel, stop silencing those who speak out against its crimes, and commit to the liberation of Palestine.

I urge all those in the art world – a pack that was prominently represented in the protest outside the Tate when Kaur was awarded – to remember the words of the American writer James Baldwin:

“Then, the direct role of the artist is to illuminate that darkness, to burn the roads in that great forest, so that we do not, in everything we do, lose sight of it, that is, to make the world. more human habitation.”

Countries and their institutions may use the frenzy of funding and platforms to suppress our show of solidarity, but in the end they will not succeed. Those who accept their personal and technical benefits may try to convince themselves that this organization will die and the matter will be forgotten, but until Palestine is free – and this will happen – we keep the receipts, we note the absence. , we hear silence about Israel's killing in Gaza. It is not too late to stand on the right side of history.

A happy new year will only exist when the Palestinians and all those who are oppressed are free.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.