Apogee Journal affirms our unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian people and supports their struggle for liberation and justice.
We are horrified by the ongoing genocide being waged against Palestinians in Gaza. We grieve all of the lives lost and mourn alongside the victims of ongoing state-sanctioned violence. We also fear the terror of the ongoing bombings on a population of which nearly half are children. We fully reject the narrative dominating mainstream Western media–one that regurgitates harmful talking points blaming victims of state violence for their own oppression, and which brands all Palestinian resistance to settler colonialism as terrorism. As writers, artists, and cultural workers, we reject the simplistic binary that conflates support for Palestine with anti-Semitism. Anti-zionism is not anti-Semitism.
Long before the current crisis in Gaza, Israel with the support of the United States facilitated death and debility through routine brutal measures of displacement, neglect and abandonment–methods of ethnic cleansing. From the October 17th bombing of the Al Ahli hospital, to previous attacks on Palestinian health care facilities, to denying Palestinians medical care including access to life-saving COVID vaccines and treatment, what we witness is the flagrant abuses of human rights.
The distortion of reality through state-sponsored propaganda attempts to legitimize genocide and to silence dissidence among the oppressed, threatening liberation struggles everywhere. As a literary organization based largely in the U.S, we have greater latitude to speak out than writers and journalists in Palestine. We must speak truth to power and condemn the complicity of mainstream publishers and literary spheres in the ongoing oppression and erasure of Palestinian voices and perspectives in this critical time.
Throughout Europe, a number of literary and cultural events by Palestinian artists and writers or works featuring Palestine have been shut down since October 7th. To name a few: the staging of the play And Here I Am written by Hassan Abdulrazzak based on the life of Ahmed Tobasi, born in Jenin during the first intifada, the book launch of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall and the awards ceremony for Adania Shibli at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The cancellation of these events is part of a wider global silencing of Palestinian voices, where even Instagram posts in support of Palestine have been shadow banned. We avow the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Apogee recognizes that our global struggles for liberation and justice are interconnected. As an organization that sees literature and art as tools for liberation, we are committed to uplifting the voices of Palestinians and all those affected by occupation. We also commit to providing material support for Palestinians in the short and long term.
We demand an immediate ceasefire and the end of the occupation. We urge our readers to use your voices, to mobilize the tools of language and literature, and take action in defense of Palestinian life. Amplify the stories censored from mainstream media coverage. Attend rallies, protests, marches, and vigils if and as you are able. Call your congresspeople to urge their support for an immediate ceasefire. Donate to groups providing medical and humanitarian aid needed now more than ever. We share some resources and calls to action in the evolving list below.
