Golden Thread Productions mourns the loss of innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives. We condemn the assault by Hamas on Israeli civilians on October 7th, 2023, and the ongoing and unwarranted decades-long state terrorism by Israel against the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We denounce antisemitism, islamophobia, racism, and all acts of violence and terrorism in all of its forms. We believe that every human life matters and every human being deserves to live a life of dignity.
We call for an immediate end to the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip committed by Netanyahu’s government and sanctioned by Biden’s administration. We call on all people of conscience to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the safe release of hostages. We firmly believe that lasting peace and security in the region can only be attained through political solutions that bring an end to Israeli military occupation and state violence against Palestinians.
As a theater company whose mission is driven by the necessity of changing the negative perspectives about the people of the Middle East in the U.S. popular culture and creating space for our narratives in the American theater, we are outraged by the U.S. mainstream media’s continuous complicity in dehumanizing Palestinians and silencing their narrative. The mainstream media’s adoption of the Israeli administration’s inhumane terminology to describe the Palestinian people, who have lived under occupation, dispossession, racism, and state violence for seven decades, is shameful and egregious.
As an American theater company devoted to the Middle East, Golden Thread denounces the U.S. government’s sanctioning of war and genocide using our taxpayer dollars. We condemn Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians, use of banned weapons, targeting civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, carpet bombing residential areas, hospitals, mosques, churches and schools. We condemn Israeli settler colonialism, military occupation and its system of apartheid.
As we mourn the loss of innocent lives in Palestine and Israel as a result of the escalated violence, we are moved by the Palestinian people’s resilience, strength and spirit and the fearlessness of the Jewish people who are speaking up against what the state of Israel is committing in their name. While we are in no position to judge how the Palestinian people should resist colonialism, state violence and ethnic cleansing, we wish to recognize and salute the persisting Palestinian nonviolent resistance to occupation, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in the Diaspora, in all its forms: boycotts, protests and marches, journalism, art, theater, literature, music, cultural events, festivals, politics, and film. We implore the world to listen to these voices. None of us are free until all of us are free and peace can only be attained when justice is served.
While it’s difficult to continue to make art in times of a genocide, we recognize the immense significance of our mission and the need for a communal space for our communities. We pledge to continue to create a space free of racism and hate. We pledge to continue to fight against all forms of antisemitism and islamophobia. We pledge to confront rhetoric that dehumanizes any people and to continue to lift up the narratives and voices that are ignored and omitted. Golden Thread opens its doors to all members of our communities to come together in these dark times and share with love, the essence of us all.
In grief, outrage and solidarity,
Golden Thread Productions
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