Mahmoud Salameh, Syria @salameh_art.
‘Art provides a window, poetry too’, Mahmoud Salameh, artist and animator, Naarm 2023
FREE PALESTINE: A CONVERGENCE OF VOICES
We are grateful for conversations with and guidance from Mahmoud Salameh and Dr Paula Abood while developing this project, and for guidance from the articles, poetry and statements referred to below. Thanks to Margaret Mayhew for editing.
INVITATION TO SUBMIT
We invite you to submit a poem, short prose (up to 600 words), song or artwork that builds solidarity with and uplifts the voices of Palestinians. We invite you to join us in creating a convergence of voices in support of a Free Palestine.
We are accepting submissions from now until 10th of December 2023. We are looking for poems, short prose (approx 600 words) and artwork.
For Palestinian contributors we invite you to submit short prose (approx 600 words), poems, songs or artwork.
For non-Palestinian contributors we encourage you to engage with the work of Palestinian journalists, artists, poets, writers, or musicians etc. and develop a short piece of prose (aprox. 600 words), a poem, song or artwork informed by their work.
*Remember to send in the work you are responding to alongside your own – ensuring copyright is not breached. You will find a short list of Palestinian poets, writers, journalists and artists we know at the end of this post. It is most definitely not exhaustive.
Your submission should include a short bio (50 words) for you, and a short bio or reference, social media handle (with date and time of post) or similar for the creator you are responding to.
We are accepting previously published work as well as new work.
Email to fenceswritingthrough@gmail.com – ‘Free Palestine: A convergence of voices’.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
We are guided by the following statements and articles. It is important that you read these as they inform this project and our action. We also suggest you read our statement at the end of this post.
Randa Abdel Fattah, In the face of western hypocrisy, the people stand with Gaza, New Arab.
Steve Salaita, To the people of Gaza and all of Palestine, No flags, No slogans.
Indigenous Solidarity with Palestine, The Red Nation.
Hirak Au, Youth statement, Stop Israel’s genocide, end the war on Gaza. Overland
HOW DO WE PUBLISH?
Your work will be published on the Writing Through Fences website as part of the project: ‘Free Palestine: A convergence of voices’.
Publication is as a ‘rolling project’ which means work will be published over the next month as it comes in.
We anticipate other publications and projects will promote and republish with attributions. Please contact us if you are interested.
Please note: We are hoping to publish much of the work we receive but we do not guarantee publication of your work.
REMUNERATION
Writing Through Fences is an unfunded collaborative project. Although we usually have a strict policy of paying participants for their work through donations received from individuals or crowd funding, we are unable to offer payment to those with citizen privilege. First Nations and Palestinian contributors and those without citizen privilege will be paid $50 for each published work. Please indicate when you submit your work.
SPREAD THE WORD
Thank you for being part of this convergence of voices in support of a Free Palestine. Please invite others who may be interested to contribute.
With warmth,
Eghbal Asadi, Hani Abdile and Janet Galbraith, 7 November 2023.
Eghbal Asadi, Palestine, Acrylic on canvas, 2023
WRITING THROUGH FENCES: ACTION STATEMENT
Founders of Writing Through Fences are horrified and heartbroken by the genocidal force of Israel fully unleashed against Gaza and the whole of Palestine.
We are appalled by much of the media coverage around Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and are committed to resisting the silence and propaganda of this colony; propaganda which promotes dangerous narratives of white supremacy enabled through structures grounded in the brutality of occupation and Indigenous dispossession.
Many of us know well how narratives are used to demonise and dehumanise. We also know their material and bodily effects. We follow Palestinian journalist and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers, Ahmed Alnaouq, in calling out the violence of much mainstream media and, we add, publishers, ‘Most of the mainstream media in the West has always been complicit against the Palestinian people… The blood of my family is on their hand’ – Ahmed Alnaouq.
Founding member, Hani Abdile often reminds us that ‘language can heal and language can harm’.
Free Palestine: A convergence of voices, is an offering of solidarity with Palestinians; an offering that we hope will mobilise non-Palestinians to untangle the racist histories we/they have been fed and centre Palestinian voices and knowledges. It is an offering we hope will help to counter the harmful language of Australian media that is mobilised in the interests of continuing the settler colonial project.
We demand CEASEFIRE NOW, land back, right of return and justice.
We demand truth telling, treaty, land rights, prison abolition and justice.
From the river to the sea, always was, always will be.
– Eghbal Asadi, Hani Abdile, Bernadette Ryan, Sriharan Ganeshan, Rose Ertler, Mohammed Boush, Farhad Bandesh, Jenell Quinsee and Janet Galbraith, 7th November 2023
Follow apan.org.au and bdsmovement.net for information on direct actions and education. Follow Overland Literary Journal for accurate and insightful reporting, creative content and commentary overland.org.au.
A short and certainly not exhaustive list of Palestinian poets, journalists, writers, and visual artists. We invite you to send us names of people whose work we do not yet know. Thanks.
Some journalists in Gaza
Youmna ElSayed @YoumnaElSayed17
Motaz Azaiza @azaizamotaz9
Bayan @BayanPalestine
Maha Hussaini @MahaGaza
Hind Khoudary @Hind_Gaza
Some poets and writers
Sara M Saleh
Samah Sabawi
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Tasniim Mahmoud Sammak
Amal Naser
Lana Tatour
Naser Mashni
Mohammed el-Kurd
Tusiata Avia
Mosab Abu Toha
Suheir Hammad
Dareen Tatour
Samar Hussaini
Fady Joudah
Fadwa Tuqan
Mahmoud Darwish
Remi Kanazi
Najwan Darwish
Basem Khandakji
Abdul Rahman Katanani
Susan Abulhawa
Mustafa Sheta
Bilal al-Saadi
Dalia Taha
Mohaammed Mousa
Devin G. Atallah
Some visual artists
Mahmoud Salameh
Miream Salameh
Shireen Abdul Kareem
Maryam Salah
Shareef Sarhan
Silman Mansour
Safaa Odeh
Malak Mattar
Laila Shawa
Jeanine Hourani
Safaa Odeh
Tasneem Marghani