UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group
Welcome to the UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group webpage. We are a group of cultural heritage professionals working across museums, libraries, galleries, and archives in the UK who demand sector-wide collective action for Palestine. To get involved and join our mailing list and discord channel, please email heritagexpalestine@gmail.com. This group is open to anyone who wants to contribute their ideas, share their experiences, or learn from others.
Open Letter
To UK Cultural Heritage institutions: Collective Action for Palestine Now
As heritage workers, we have a social justice responsibility to stand against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians that is being committed by the State of Israel and enabled by its allies, including the UK Government. With history’s archives at our fingertips, we refuse to ignore the UK’s historic and present complicity in Israel’s settler colonial project, by which Israel has subjected the Palestinian people to unjust displacement, land robbery, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing for over 75 years.
As custodians of the historical record for present and future generations, we are appalled by the spread of government and media propaganda in the UK that is obscuring the aggressive nature of Israeli colonial violence towards the Palestinian people. Since 7th October 2023, over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza as well as the West Bank, including over 14,000 children. This unprecedented massacre of Palestinian civilians cannot continue and we, as a workforce, must do everything in our power to demand immediate ceasefire and advocate for Palestine’s freedom.
Whilst efforts are being made across the UK heritage sector to “decolonise” collections and practices, our institutions have largely failed to address historic and contemporary issues surrounding colonisation of the Palestinian people. This is evidenced by the sector’s silence regarding the massacre of colonised Palestinians by Israel over the past six months. Amidst the ongoing violence and in response to the UK’s bombing of Yemen, however, the UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group believe that countless lives can still be saved if our workforce chooses to speak up and take meaningful action now, at this crucial moment when humanitarian catastrophe is no longer imminent but happening right now.
Short-term vision
Recognising the urgency of the situation in Gaza, where the daily death toll now exceeds all other major conflicts in 21st century, UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group’s short-term vision is to provide heritage professionals with the tools, resources, and support that will enable them to take immediate action in the workplace, including:
- Resources for improving information literacy regarding the ongoing genocide in Palestine and global responses to it, including issues related to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, as well as workers’ rights to speak up for Palestine without repercussion.
- Templates for institutional statements and communications speaking out against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by Israel.
- Language guidance for describing and interpreting collections and content related to Palestine.
- Online information sessions and workshops on decolonial approaches to Palestine in the heritage sector and a weekly online discussion group where members can support one another and share ideas, experiences, and resources.
Long-term vision
With a view to the future, UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group aims to expand the scope of its resources and encourage a permanent shift in workplace culture when it comes to speaking up against colonialism and war, inequality, and human rights violations.
We sign this statement in support of the above aims and call upon the leading heritage bodies in the UK to break their silence on the ongoing genocide, support the Cultural BDS campaign against the State of Israel, condemn the destruction of cultural heritage sites across Gaza (including 13 libraries and archive to date), and defend the freedom of cultural workers to speak out against imperialism and genocide.
The signatories work as librarians, archivists and curators at a wide range of UK cultural heritage bodies, including: African Studies Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library, Fitzwilliam Museum, Historic England, King’s College London, Leeds Central Library, London School of Economics, Imperial War Museums, Manchester Museum, Migration Museum, Museum of London, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Shubbak, South West Heritage Trust, St George’s, University of London, University College London, University of Brighton, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, University of Exeter, University of Leeds, University of London, University of Sheffield, University of Sussex, University of York, Victoria and Albert Museum, York Museums Trust and others. All are signing in a personal capacity.
| Signatures |
|---|
| Sandy Abdelrahman |
| Faridha Abdul Karim |
| Katerina Acuna |
| Marwa Ahmed |
| Taneesha Ahmed |
| Cina Aissa |
| Phoenix Alexander |
| Caspian Alexander-Reid |
| Christian Algar |
| Zena Ali |
| Alia Alzougbi |
| Ella Andrews |
| Shelley Angelie Saggar |
| Korantema Anyimadu |
| Che Applewhaite |
| Leila Araar |
| Noham Astier-Cholodenko |
| Dean Ayotte |
| Conor Baird |
| Christina Bean |
| Fahema Begum |
| Begum |
| Chase Benbow |
| Sanne Berbers |
| Claudia Bolliger |
| Jasmine Brady |
| Doug Broadbent-Yale |
| Nylah Byrd |
| Emma Cairns |
| Louise Calf |
| Bertha A. Calles Cartas |
| Shannon Campbell |
| Stephanie Carlton |
| Chris Cassells |
| Pardaad Chamsaz |
| Carissa Chew |
| Marilyn Clarke |
| Alison Cohen-Moule |
| Nicola Cook |
| Ben Cornish |
| Chloe Cousins |
| Kayleigh Crawford |
| Subhadra Das |
| Maria Olivia Davalos Stanton |
| Roberta De Angelis |
| Olena Dmytryk |
| Shikha Dwivedi |
| Nia Edwards-Behi |
| Abeer Eladany |
| Samantha Emmanuel |
| Syeda Fatima |
| Sophia Finucane |
| Alex Fitzpatrick |
| Violet Fox |
| Rainer Geschke |
| Jamila Ghaddar |
| Mari Gordon |
| Mariia Gorodetska |
| Christopher Greenberg |
| Becca Greenstein |
| Anisha Gupta |
| Ayça Haldızoğlu |
| Laura Hampden |
| Patrick Hart |
| Cathryn Harvey |
| John Hayhurst |
| Amanda Hegarty |
| Adrian Hernandez |
| Carmen Hesketh |
| Alice Heywood |
| Elizabeth Hicks |
| Jessica Holland |
| Ed Hood |
| Lana Hughes |
| Shona Hunter |
| Phoebe Ignatia |
| Hannah Ishmael |
| Mona Jamil |
| Jennifer Jarvis |
| Tom Jeffreys |
| Naomi Junnor |
| Theocharis Katrakazis |
| Stefani Kavda |
| Yasmin Khan |
| Amal Khreisheh |
| Alexandros Koukos |
| Dominic King |
| Anne-Laure Lacour |
| Paula Larkin |
| Rachael Lee |
| Lilan Lemouchi |
| Ruairí Lewis |
| Daniel Lowe |
| Fran Mahon |
| Gennifer Majors |
| Olivia Majumdar |
| Natalia Maliga |
| Gillian Marcus |
| Frances Marsh |
| Joanna Martin |
| Monna Matharu |
| Charlie McCann |
| Lisa McQuillan |
| Laharee Mitra |
| Sharon Mizota |
| Oonagh Monaghan |
| Savanah Ebony Mohamed-Fahmy-Fryer |
| Lucy Moore |
| Eleanor Muniandy |
| Emily Munro |
| Richard Nevell |
| James O’Brien |
| Tim O’Dell |
| Olivia O’Dwyer |
| Megan O’Mahony |
| Clara Panozzo |
| Danika Parikh |
| Mia Roach Penn |
| Dora Petherbridge |
| Emma Pizarro |
| Shivaya Prasad |
| Andrew Preater |
| Charlotte Procter |
| Tim Pye |
| Amanda Rios-Place |
| Carla Salem |
| Doa Sarmad Khan |
| Giulia Schirripa |
| Domenico Sergi |
| Aiysha Sheth |
| Kathryn Simpson |
| Angus Sinclair |
| Jenni Skinner |
| Bethany Skuce |
| Christine A. Smith |
| Louise Smith |
| Linn Solheim |
| Sagita Mirjam Sunara |
| Saba Syed |
| Rachelle Tabet |
| Valerie Tomlinson |
| Nisha Toomey |
| Laleña Vellanoweth |
| Aisha Wahab |
| Conor Walker |
| Patrick Worsfold |
| Lydia Wright |
Group Resources
Palestine and Palestinians in the Catalog, presentation by Jamie Carlstone, 24 January, 2024
UK Heritage X Palestine: Language Guidance, presentation by Carissa Chew, 19 January 2024
UK Heritage X Palestine Action Group Collated Resource List, May 2024
CHTNUK 