News

Statement from the Arab Publishers’ Association

We at the Arab Publishers’ Association have been following with extreme concern the tragic events which have been unfolding and the military escalation by Israel which has reached the level of genocide being perpetrated on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian people have been living under the longest occupation in modern history, an occupation which has transformed into a system of apartheid that exerts maximum pressure and has made Gaza an open prison for more than 2.2 million people.  
Illegal settlements continue to be built and expanded. Settlers attack Palestinians at will and with the collusion of the IDF. Most recently, we have seen attacks by settlers that have evicted 20 communities in an act of ethnic cleansing and hundreds of Palestinians were killed including children. We have also seen attacks on Muslim and Christian holy sites by Israeli extremists such as the brutal attacks on worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque which we urged you to condemn in our last press statement.  
All attempts to protest and resist these acts of aggression, dispossession and daily intimidation are met with brutal repression.  There are thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails under indefinite ‘administrative detention’ including over 700 minors.
In addition to this, there have been alarming announcements made by Israel’s ultra-nationalist government concerning the fate of the Palestinian people.  
Let us not forget Sherine Abu Akleh, the peaceful Palestinian-American journalist who was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper and the 52 others who have been killed as well as doctors and first aid providers.
Events have now reached a critical point and the dangerous escalation by Israel threatens the very survival of the Palestinian people.  The total siege and assault that has begun on Gaza is a war crime.
We at the Arab Publishers’ Association implore the international community not to remain silent and to intervene to stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Furthermore, we call on the leaders in the publishing community and civil society to maintain neutrality and even-handedness and refrain from taking a one-sided view of this existential crisis.