August 8, 2024 Statement by the PEN International Writers for Peace Committee
THE DISGRACE OF GAZA – A SYMBOL OF SHAME
Whatever the political calculations that have resulted in the destruction of Gaza during 2023 and 2024, the outcome is that one state and one resistance group have lost all sense of humanity and perspective. We writers who champion peace condemn the massacre of innocent civilians, wherever they live and whatever their nationality or origin.
The events of 7 October 2023, when Hamas slaughtered over 1000 Israelis gathered for a music festival, was a stain of barbarism on its perpetrators. The taking of hundreds of hostages was an act of terrorism and it can do nothing to advance the cause of the Palestinian people whom Hamas purport to represent. The brutal retaliation of the Israeli state – its Government and Defence Force – goes beyond all concepts of proportionate response, which has resulted in a harsh ruling by the International Court of Justice and a request by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court’s for Israeli leaders to face arrest, along with those of Hamas.
We are horrified by the condition of Gaza and its people. The obliteration of most of Gaza and the killing of many thousands of people is not excusable collateral damage of a military rescue mission. It is the result of the Israeli Government’s conscious decision that the murder of civilians is acceptable if the ability of Hamas to attack is downgraded. This is collective punishment and is a crime outlawed in international law. There have been and will continue to be calls for those who have ordered and carried out the killing and maiming on both sides to be brought to justice – justice that involves sanction and imprisonment, not death. These are right and proper. However they will not solve the problem of regional insecurity and the cycle of vengeance.
The people on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the lands between it and the Persian Gulf have suffered almost continuously for the last hundred years. In all that time, no settlement of fundamental issues of belonging, land ownership, civilised government and human rights has been forthcoming. Collapsing imperial powers have been followed by a succession of autocratic or intolerant regional states. The formation of the State of Israel was meant to be an answer: to provide a way out of persecution for the Jewish people. Instead it has resulted in the occupation, displacement, and now murder, of Palestinian people over four generations and yet still many Israelis feel as unsafe as ever. At the same time the politics of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are plainly disastrous. They simply cannot or will not provide their people with prosperity and peace. For too long too many so-called ‘great’ powers have seen the area as a proxy playground for political ideologies.
It is time for all this to stop. Killing must cease. Armed forces (whether state, religious or vigilante) must withdraw and put away their weapons. New solutions, not based on the failed attempts of the 20th century, must be negotiated with more responsible political figures not associated with the historical terrorism, extremism and autocracy of the region (and that includes Israel’s Likud Party and its allies as well as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Assad regime and the various factions of ISIS).
The Writers involved in PEN International’s Community cannot solve the problem, but with freedom of expression we can offer our services to imagine solutions. In the meantime, we urge all those in positions of authority in the region to concentrate on reconstruction: the rebuilding of lives, homes, farms and businesses – not mutual vengeance and blame.
We raise our voices to support the request of the Security Council to demand an immediate cease fire in Gaza. It is important also to put an end to the state of siege imposed on Gaza, as well as the blockade of the humanitarian aid. It is the responsibility of the international community to promote a process that takes irreversible steps towards a peaceful solution based on the recognition of two states with secure and internationally recognised borders. We demand the immediate release of all hostages kept in captivity by Hamas. We also call for the two state solution to be implemented and for an increasing number of governments to follow the UN’s lead and recognise the Statehood of Palestine.
Gaza is the appalling symbol of failed global politics over a hundred years and more. We are deeply moved by the plight of its people and so many others in the region. There has to be an end to fighting, to oppression and to acts of provocation and revenge. Hostages are either dead or in captivity. Gaza is in ruins. This brings disgrace to all those involved and those who justify the destruction.
We recognise too that the mechanisms and organisations that have represented the International Community for the last 75 years may not be adequate, given the rise of despotic governments throughout the world and the inward-looking challenges facing most democracies. The United Nations does not have the ability nor the remit to enforce its resolutions and to deliver security and adequate aid in such crises. A new mechanism for the coming half century will be required to counter political intransigence, ethnic arrogance and the equally destructive effects of climate change.
Brutality and repression is global. Our call, therefore, is not just for an end to the devastation along one ancient coast but for freedom of expression, aspiration and imagination from Istanbul to Tangier, Muscat to Hong Kong, Tijuana to Buenos Aires and from Aden to Vladivostok – the vast land mass and its islands of the northern hemisphere. Multilateral organisations, regional and global, must multiply their efforts to find a final settlement of these pervasive issues. Humanity can be impressive. At the moment it is not.
