Freemuse joins people around the world in marking the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November and reaffirming their UN-recognised rights, including self-determination, the right of return, and an independent state free from occupation. After generations of dispossession beginning with the 1948 Nakba and decades of occupation and blockade, the past two years have brought devastating genocide in Gaza and escalating violence and repression across the occupied Palestinian territory. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost many of them children. Entire communities have faced displacement, hunger and deep trauma. The October 2025 ceasefire agreement offers small but important signs of hope. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, ‘The Palestinian people have a right to dignity, to justice, and to self-determination. Yet over the last two years, these rights have been violated beyond comprehension’.
We recognise that the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People must extend to protecting artistic freedom. While reporting has centred on humanitarian, health, and education crises, the impact on artistic and cultural life has received far less attention. Among the approximately 67,000 Palestinians killed, dozens were artists, writers, and cultural operators. It is estimated that 80% of all structures in Gaza were damaged, this includes archaeological sites, libraries, galleries, art centres, and cultural institutions.
‘The Palestinian people do not need a peace plan; what we need is a justice plan’
As Freemuse’s State of Artistic Freedom 2025 report, Censorship of Commentary on Palestine in Germany – Art in the Crossfire: Navigating Censorship in Turbulent Times, highlights artistic freedom around the world has come under intense pressure since the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza. Exhibitions, performances and installations related to the war have been censored or cancelled in many countries. Political expression has been closely policed, and artists have faced attacks for opinions shared recently or even many years before a work was presented. This climate has created a global chilling effect on cultural expression. Freemuse’s data shows a wide impact, especially in Germany, as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom. Since the report was written the situation has not improved in any meaningful way.
At a UN meeting on 25 November for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha said Palestinians ‘do not need a peace plan; what we need is a justice plan’. Born in a refugee camp, he spoke of surviving the genocide and read from Forest of Noise (2024), including “Under the Rubble”: ‘He left the house to buy some bread for his kids. / News of his death / made it home, / but not the bread. / No bread. / Death sits to eat whoever remains of the kids. / No need for a table, no need for bread.’
On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Freemuse commemorates the lives Palestinian artists who have been killed in the last 12 months and whose stories reveal what it means to create under siege, during war and genocide. Their lives ended too soon, but their work shows how creativity finds a way to survive even in the darkest moments. Walaa Jumaa al-Afranj’s detailed calligraphy, Dina Zaurub’s portraits and Durgham Qreiqeh’s neighbourhood workshops all sought to preserve memory at a time when those keeping the record were themselves under threat. Amna al-Salmi and Ismail Abu Hatab, who were killed together in an airstrike, used their craft to express resilience and humanity. As Mosab Abu Toha reminds us, when souls remain under the rubble, the world must act so that no child, no story, and no future stays buried.
