Wolf Alice, Massive Attack, Primal Scream, Brian Eno, Dua Lipa and Annie Lennox are among the musicians who have signed an open letter to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging him to “take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.”
The letter is co-signed by over 300 public figures, among them actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Riz Ahmed and Maxine Peake, film directors Danny Boyle and Asif Kapadia, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, former England football captain-turned-sports pundit Gary Lineker, TV presenters Dermot O’Leary and Laura Whitmore, and physicist Brian Cox. The letter, organised by refugee charity Choose Love, has also been signed by doctors, academics, advocacy groups and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos
The text of the letter begins:
“Dear Prime Minister Keir Starmer,We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.
Right now, children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine sit just minutes away, blocked at the border. Words won’t feed Palestinian children – we need action.”
The letter calls for action in three specific areas, asking for:
An immediate suspension of all UK arms sales to Israel, immediate humanitarian access for experienced aid agencies, and the UK government to commit to assist in brokering a ceasefire.
The text states:
“Each arms shipment makes our country directly complicit in their deaths.
“Over 15,000 children have already been killed – including at least 4,000 under the age of four. Bedrooms where children once slept, kitchens where families shared meals, schools where they learned – all reduced to rubble while Britain stands by.
“You can’t call it ‘intolerable’ and keep sending arms.
“Every moment this continues, is another moment children die on our watch. This complicity is not inevitable – it is a choice. What do you choose, Prime Minister?
“History is written in moments of moral clarity. This is one. The world is watching and history will not forget.”
The letter concludes by asking, “Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?”
Yesterday, May 29, 380 writers signed a separate open letter calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, describing Israel’s military campaign in the region as “genocidal”.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, written in the wake of the mass murder of six million European Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Israel has been accused of carrying out genocidal acts during the ongoing war in Gaza by numerous organisations, including the UN Human Rights Council.
Israel’s military campaign, sparked by the October 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli soil that saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 people taken hostage, has resulted in the death of over 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 58 hostages from the October 7, 2023 attack remain held in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Israel has denied any genocidal intent, which requires certain thresholds to be met in order to be legally recognised; a case brought forward by South Africa to The International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians is ongoing.
The conflict in the region has been on-going for decades, with official UN figures for the 15 years before the 2023 escalation recording 7,277 Palestinian deaths and 162,121 Palestinian injuries in occupied Palestinian territory and Israel since 2008, and 368 Israeli deaths and 6,670 Israeli injuries during the same time span.