FKA Twigs, Arca, Seun Kuti, hundreds more join Musicians For Palestine pledge

FKA Twigs, Arca, Seun Kuti, and hundreds more have joined the Musicians For Palestine pledge, calling on their peers to add their names in “refusing to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions" and and "standing firm in your support of the Palestinian people and their human right to sovereignty and freedom".

UB40, Blonde Redhead, The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red), CocoRosie, Femdot, Majid Jordan, Ana Tijoux, Anti-Flag, Venus X and Zoë McPherson, are among the 900+ signatories who have now signed up to the initiative. See the full list of 2022 signatories here.

Radio Al Hara and the Al-jisser cultural space, which are both based in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, will  broadcast a four-hour one-off show today (27th September) featuring musicians supporting the pledge. Tune in at 4pm UK time (6pm Palestinian time) here. NTS Radio is currently streaming the Radio Al Hara / #MusiciansForPalestine mix. Find out more about the broadcast here.

An accompanying press text for the initiative states that Musicians For Palestine was launched in May last year after Israeli forces killed at least 243 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded at least 1900. 12 people in Israel were also killed by Palestinian armed groups. Last month, the press release adds, Israeli forces killed 47 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 16 children.

“We believe that now, more than ever, is the time to respect the Palestinian peaceful picket line by declining invitations to events that are subsidised or sponsored by the Israeli state, its lobby groups or complicit cultural institutions. Such events can only legitimize Israeli apartheid policies," said the initiative's organisers in the press release.

"As musicians we can contribute to breaking the wall of silence and protest these great injustices taking place against the Palestinian people. Many of us come from or work in states that are deeply complicit in maintaining this system of grave injustice," they wrote in their 2022 statement. Read the statement in full here.

Last year, over 600 artists signed #MusiciansForPalestine, a letter in support of Palestinian rights, including A-Trak, Cypress Hill, DJ Snake, Juliana Huxtable, LSDXOXO, Marie Davidson and VTSS, who are demanding "justice, dignity and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people and all who are fighting colonial dispossession and violence across the planet.

Revisit our cover feature with the “queen of the Palestinian techno scene” Sama' Abdulhadi.