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Israel’s cultural genocide in Gaza continues, as it assassinates artist Frans al-Salmi

Israel killed visual artist Frans al-Salmi in Monday’s mass murder of 95 people in Gaza. She joins over a hundred cultural workers whom occupation forces have killed during the ongoing genocide as part of what some call “a deliberate campaign to erase Palestinian culture”.

As human rights group Al-Haq has stressed:

Targeting cultural heritage is not an empty gesture. Culture constitutes a visible expression of human identity. Depriving a people of their culture is tantamount to emptying them of the very substance that forms the backbone of their right to self-determination, especially in a context of cumulative, interconnected and systemic human rights violations.

Ignoring Gaza’s cultural genocide, as it assassinates Frans al-Salmi

Back in 2021, Keir Starmer spoke about China’s treatment of its Uyghur community, promising “to ensure Britain never turns a blind eye to genocide” and urging action. Though there were no apparent reports of murder, except the roughly 200 deaths during the July 2009 riots, Western media outlets regularly condemned “cultural genocide”.

Though they once threw the word genocide around quite lightly, Starmer and others suddenly went quiet when Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began in October 2023. Could that possibly be because Israel is an ally and China isn’t? They wouldn’t allow that to determine their responses, would they?

Scholars and journalists have been documenting Israel’s systematic and widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage in Gaza. As online journal Sada points out:

Eradicating the rich cultural and literary scenes in Gaza is itself an act of dehumanization, a key stage of genocide

Jewish Voice for Peace, meanwhile, has insisted:

This is textbook cultural genocide, and it’s a core component of Israeli settler colonialism. Erasing Palestinian culture and history makes it that much easier for the Israeli government to lay claim to Palestinians’ homes and land and deny Palestinians’ historical connection and rights to that land.

In the first year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the settler-colonial power systematically bombed the vast majority of Gaza’s schools, prompting experts to denounce its actions as ‘educide’ or ‘scholasticide’. This was on top of the murder of at least one child every hour since 2023. On top of this, “nearly all major art institutions have been reduced to rubble“, with “32 cultural centers obliterated” and 12 museums destroyed.

Israeli occupation forces added to this by destroying “at least 206 archaeological and heritage sites”, 611 mosques, and a “747-year-old library”, while damaging many other sites (including “all three of Gaza’s churches”, one of them dating back to the fifth century). They also demolished “at least 34 sports facilities, stadiums and gyms” and killed “at least 410 athletes, sports officials or coaches”.

Cultural rights organisation Mimeta explains that the genocide has been:

devastating the region’s cultural fabric. Among the casualties are artists from diverse fields—painters, writers, poets, photographers, musicians, and designers—whose work represented the vibrant soul of Palestinian identity. This tragic loss extends beyond individuals, targeting cultural institutions and erasing centuries of heritage.

Now, Frans al-Salmi is the latest victim of this.

British cultural workers stand in solidarity with Palestine

Outspoken groups in the West like Kneecap and Bob Vylan have attracted the wrath of genocide apologists this year because of their opposition to Israeli war crimes. And their courage to speak out is nothing less than a moral imperative amid Israel’s cultural genocide in Gaza, especially as the British government seeks to crack down on the right to resist the state’s complicity in Israeli war crimes.

With popular and effective activists from Palestine Action facing proscription efforts from Keir Starmer’s regime, numerous cultural workers have made their opposition clear, insisting:

Palestine Action is intervening to stop a genocide. It is acting to save life. We deplore the government’s decision to proscribe it. Labeling non-violent direct action as ‘terrorism’ is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy. The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from the home secretary’s efforts to ban it. We call on the government to withdraw its proscription of Palestine Action and to stop arming Israel.

Those signing this statement include Paul Weller, Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Francesca Martinez, and Frankie Boyle, along with many other visual artists, writers, actors, comedians, and musicians.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.