Forma

Solidarity with Palestine 2023

The Forma team is horrified by the extreme violence between Hamas and the Israeli Government which has led to the murder of so many civilians. We are angered by Israel’s ongoing military operation that has displaced and killed thousands of Palestinians and caused a humanitarian crisis across the Gaza strip. In the words of Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), “Gaza is being strangled and the world seems to have lost its humanity”.

Forma collaborates with artists who call for peace, justice and equity for the global majority and all. Like our artistic community, Forma rejects and opposes discrimination, racism, individual and state violence. Forma stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Two years ago Forma and Unlimited supported artist Sophie Hoyle with some funds to research and develop Psychic Refuge (2020-21) (2020-21), a digital resource which gathers contemporary understandings and applications of trauma studies and psychology, PTSD and treatments in the context of Palestinian occupation. Following the launch of Psychic Refuge, Hoyle added a series of micro-commissions and contributions by artists and creatives with ties to the Palestinian cause. To the request of the artists Forma publicly stated its position in October 2021:

Forma and all who work at Forma support the people of Palestine in their calls for justice. We share the Artists for Palestine UK vision of a world where Palestinians and Israelis have the right to live with dignity, freedom, justice and equality. We encourage creatives, our partners and audiences to demand that our government take action and hold Israel to account for its violation of Palestinian rights and the violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

Two years later, on Friday 20 October 2023, the situation in Palestine is much worse and the Forma team officially asserts that we maintain this position.

As the world witnesses atrocities unfold, statements are not without use, for they spell the end to silence. However, what is needed right now is positive and affirmative action to end the suffering of innocent people. Forma calls to the wider arts community and our audiences and implores them to act in a way that is feasible for them. Together we can collectively appeal and protest to force diplomatic hands to ensure international law is upheld, hostages returned safely, and end the indiscriminate bombing of entire neighbourhoods; we can raise funds to resource the humanitarian crisis in Gaza; we can seek to educate ourselves better and share our resources.

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Solidarity with Palestine

The Forma team is horrified by the extreme violence between Hamas and the Israeli Government which has led to the murder of so many civilians. We are angered by Israel’s ongoing military operation that has displaced and killed thousands of Palestinians and caused a humanitarian crisis across the Gaza strip. In the words of Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), “Gaza is being strangled and the world seems to have lost its humanity”.

Forma collaborates with artists who call for peace, justice and equity for the global majority and all. Like our artistic community, Forma rejects and opposes discrimination, racism, individual and state violence. Forma stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Two years ago Forma and Unlimited supported artist Sophie Hoyle with some funds to research and develop Psychic Refuge (2020-21) (2020-21), a digital resource which gathers contemporary understandings and applications of trauma studies and psychology, PTSD and treatments in the context of Palestinian occupation. Following the launch of Psychic Refuge, Hoyle added a series of micro-commissions and contributions by artists and creatives with ties to the Palestinian cause. To the request of the artists Forma publicly stated its position in October 2021:

Forma and all who work at Forma support the people of Palestine in their calls for justice. We share the Artists for Palestine UK vision of a world where Palestinians and Israelis have the right to live with dignity, freedom, justice and equality. We encourage creatives, our partners and audiences to demand that our government take action and hold Israel to account for its violation of Palestinian rights and the violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

Two years later, on Friday 20 October 2023, the situation in Palestine is much worse and the Forma team officially asserts that we maintain this position.

As the world witnesses atrocities unfold, statements are not without use, for they spell the end to silence. However, what is needed right now is positive and affirmative action to end the suffering of innocent people. Forma calls to the wider arts community and our audiences and implores them to act in a way that is feasible for them. Together we can collectively appeal and protest to force diplomatic hands to ensure international law is upheld, hostages returned safely, and end the indiscriminate bombing of entire neighbourhoods; we can raise funds to resource the humanitarian crisis in Gaza; we can seek to educate ourselves better and share our resources.

Donate

Forma team members have donated to various charitable appeals, including The PCRF Urgent Relief for Gaza’s Children.

Charities currently appealing for funds to aid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, please consider donating, if you are able:

Demand Government Action

Forma has written letters to MPs in Southwark and Lewisham, the Foreign Office and Arts Council England, condemning the inhumane atrocities inflicted on Palestinian and Israeli civilians during the conflict, and imploring them to use their positions of authority to pressure the British Government to use all its resources and diplomatic routes to:

1. Ensure all civilians held hostage are released immediately, unconditionally, and unharmed. All those held captive must be treated humanely, in accordance with international law and granted medical treatment;

2. Secure a cease fire from both Hamas and the Israeli military;

3. Facilitate the opening of humanitarian aid corridors to Gaza;

4. Release government relief funds to ease the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza;

5. Review its unequivocal support to the government of Israel to include solidarity with the people of Palestine as well;

6. Stop abstaining at the UN security council and actively support resolutions that call for “humanitarian pauses” and the delivery of aid to Gaza.

7. Call out and investigate war crimes.

A template for our letter can be found here. Please make use of it in the best way you see fit.

This link directs you to the UK Parliament website, where you can find the name and email address of your local MP.

Education and Resources

Forma have compiled a growing list of recommended literature, which can be found here. FormaHQ will house a selection of these books on an open shelf in Presse Books - please come down, read and reflect.


Psychic Refuge

The online platform Psychic Refuge by artist Sophie Hoyle hosts a programme of micro-commissions:

A sound work selected by Radio Alhara, based in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Amman and mixed by Ibrahim Owais

A digital commission by Alla Abu Asad metaphorically exploring the application of xenophobic language applied to invasive migratory plants;

Information on two online films which were screened in 2021: We Have Always Know the Wind’s Direction (2019-20) by Inas Halabi which probes the possible burial of nuclear waste in the south of the West Bank and;

Habibi Collective’s screening of The Do Not Exist (1974), which takes its title from the remark made by former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that the Palestinians do not exist.

Resources on Psychic Refuge, including a history of Palestine and multiple reading lists:

Strike

Forma took part in the global strike for Palestine and closed FormaHQ and Presse Books on Friday 20th October, 2023. The team used the day to communicate with artists and colleagues, to formulate Forma’s statement, write and issue letters to UK government officials, and to compile resources.