As ravers, DJs, producers, musicians, and sound artists based in or connected to London, we note that our electronic music community offers critical sites of liberation, resistance and community, particularly for queer and marginalised peoples. 

Yet we are also troubled to see that most of London’s electronic music venues and collectives have been silent in response to Israel’s horrifying and ongoing violence against the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, with the financial and political support of Western states. 

Over the past ten days, Israel has cut electricity, food and water supplies from Gaza’s population, who are now on the brink of starvation; has attempted to displace over one million Palestinians from their homes, with no guarantee that they will be able to return; and has carried out airstrikes against civilian targets including hospitals, ambulances, schools, and apartment buildings that have killed more than 3,000 Palestinians, including nearly 1,000 children, and injured more than 9,000, according to the UN.

Raz Segal, associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies, called Israel's actions 'a textbook case of genocide' on October 13. Over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies signed an open letter on October 15 warning of 'the existence of a serious risk of genocide being committed in the Gaza Strip.'

We note that the UK government is a critical supporter and funder of Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza and has repeatedly refused to apply pressure on Israel to respect humanitarian law. This public support makes us as British citizens and residents complicit in the horrific suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

Now is the time for action. We refuse to participate in spaces and collectives that ignore the violence of colonialism while simultaneously profiting from the creativity of musicians and artists from the global South and diaspora communities. 

We urgently call on London’s electronic music parties and spaces, as well as our fellow ravers and artists, to publicly declare their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the brutal violence they are currently experiencing in Gaza. 

We call on our community to publicly condemn the indiscriminate bombardment and blockade currently being inflicted by Israel on Gaza and to recognise the essential context for this violence—the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes during the Nakba in 1948 and the resulting 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands alongside the construction of what Amnesty International calls an “apartheid state” that uses “discriminatory laws to systematically dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes for the benefit of Jewish Israelis”.

We insist that queer liberation is inextricable from the ongoing global struggle against imperialism and colonialism. If queer music venues in London do not now publicly stand against the attempted erasure and extermination of Palestinians, their advocacy in support of queer causes is hollow and their claims to embody dissidence, liberation and resistance are forever void.