Conditional liberation is not liberation

Readers and Audience members wishing to support our statement are requested to share the link to this Hythe post alongside this puzzle piece logo

A Statement in Support of the Palestinian People.

the87press stands resolutely in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation. 

Our solidarity in the context of Settler Colonialism and Apartheid has always been unwavering and our love goes out to all the Palestinian writers and artists who we have and continue to work for in our own small contribution to cultural production. 

We stand with you. 

We have always been a literary publisher whose context was anticolonial from the beginning and we recognise anticolonialism as a guiding context for the activities of a vast array of organisations in the UK who receive public money to continue our important work in the UK. We make this statement as a cultural organisation and encourage other organisations to make formal statements in support of the Palestinian people, unreservedly.

The ethnic cleansing of Gaza is an intensification of already existing policies and realities that the Palestinian people have been forced to endure for over 75 years. Settler Colonialism and Racial Capitalism are necropolitical systems that continue to dehumanise the majority of the world’s population, what we are witnessing in Palestine brings these facts of history into focus without the luxury of equivocation. 

We stand beside a host of human rights, cultural, and grassroots organisations in advocating for international law to be implemented as a rule for all nations and peoples without exception. We stand against the indiscriminate destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and the decimation of civilians. We stand against the global military industrial complex that is seeking to profit off of Palestinian death, dislocation, and disenfranchisement.

As cultural producers, we bear witness to the myriad ways in which Palestinian life is erased, whether through the inability to access their own lands or the criminalisation of their collective memory and artistic practices. We express thanks to industry leaders in publishing and the arts - Haymarket Books, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Artists for Palestine and the many who signed their statement of solidarity, Wasafiri, The Mosaic Rooms, and others - for their continued courage and public statements of solidarity with Palestinians.

We condemn Frankfurt Book Fair's decision to not honour Adania Shibli which serves as another example of the erasure faced by Palestinian cultural producers from "civil" society and we support the letter of support to Adania and other Palestinian writers who have faced undue expulsion or censorship as writers from one of the world’s most prominent book fairs. We support the letter in support of Adania prepared by ArabLit. We also support initiatives and legal actions instantiated by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq, and others to advocate for human rights for Palestinian people and accountability for nations selling arms to an Apartheid state that is so flagrantly in breach of international law.

We will be answering the Palestinian call for a general strike on Friday 20th October. We will also be postponing our November "Creative Writing vs The Hostile Environment" course until further notice. Other organisations will be taking action in their own way – and we wish to show support to these different mechanisms of solidarity, recognising their courage and prescience. If you're an organisation hosting events in support for the Palestinian people please let us know as we'd like to donate books or our time as poets to support initiatives raising awareness, holding space for grief, and organising for a better future. As artists, cultural producers, and creatives, we are on the side of life and meaningful peace; that begins by using our platforms to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people whose plight as a result of crimes against humanity is unfolding before all of our eyes.

As a cultural organisation, we believe our strength is in numbers and we are calling on other cultural organisations to make statements through their own social media channels. 

We signpost Artists For Palestine’s statement and this letter from the art community which are both open to all to sign.

We demand a ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

We demand the decriminalisation of solidarity with Palestinian people, the upholding of international law by all nations and cross-party support for the immediate cessation of military support for war crimes.

We demand that cultural organisations show their solidarity with Palestinian people and apply pressure to government institutions and politicians to ensure the UK is on the side of justice and not genocide.

We thank you for sharing this statement with your peers and encouraging them to show their solidarity.