Words by Barry Oliver
Illustration by Dane Thibeault
Interview by Michael Zarathus-Cook
On 16 September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a report concluding that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, finding reasonable grounds to conclude that several acts under the Genocide Convention have been, and continue to be, carried out with genocidal intent.
In the 1980s, musicians and recording artists rallied to the call of Live Aid, transforming their voices and celebrity into vehicles for famine relief in Ethiopia. Today, as Gaza faces similar devastation, can artists rally together to support the Palestinian cause? The age-old question arises of whether artists have a duty of moral urgency to respond to political conflicts. A balanced view holds that every individual is entitled to personal privacy, and no artist should be compelled to turn their life’s work into a manifesto. After all, is it not an artist’s primary responsibility to create art? Yet, art does not exist in a vacuum.
