Inverted Syntax Editors' Letter to Our Community

“poets, it is not enough to say it is a broken world. to lament the fact. no, name who has broken it-who is, right now, breaking it. and imagine another world. sing of that. and fight for it [...] palestine will be free. end the occupation, apartheid, and genocide”— Chen Chen, Chinese American Poet  @chenchenwrites ​

Dear Reader,

​As editors at Inverted Syntax, and as human beings, we are left bereft and at a loss for words as we express our utter devastation and heartbreak for the innocent victims and families of the ongoing escalating atrocities that are occurring in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank–for both Palestinians and Israelis. The deaths are unconscionable. The idea that, as a species, we continue to ransom our futures through acts of violence against our own is unconscionable. And so, too, is the human cost left on the living. We weep for and with the innocent civilians affected by the terrible violence of Hamas, and we weep for and with the innocent civilians affected by the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. We weep not just the present loss of life, but the loss of futures never seen, the promise of lives shortened. We strongly denounce Hamas. We also strongly denounce Zionism, Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We denounce terrorism on both sides.
​We denounce war crimes on both sides. 
We denounce Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. 

We would like to foreground the following points:

• The Israeli occupation of Palestine, condemned by human rights groups for decades, has been committing violence for over a century, bolstered by support from Western imperial and Zionist powers. This violence has escalated unchecked into the draconian war strategy we are witnessing today in Gaza, which is a humanitarian emergency that Israeli historian Raz Segal describes as a “textbook case of genocide.”
• ​On October 15th, 2023, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies, and genocide studies signed a public statement warning of the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. ​
• In addition, 750 artists and writers based in the EU, the UK, and North America have been speaking out to demand an end to the violence and destruction in Palestine in an "An Open Letter on the Situation in Palestine"
• Started in 2004, thousands of artists signatures worldwide were gathered [2020], pledging for Palestinian rights and call for the cultural boycott of Israel. 
• ​A Letter Against Apartheid 2021 including eflux, ArtReview, ArtAsiaPacific, Dazed, Mondoweiss, The New Inquiry, Hyperallergic, Publishers Weekly, Electric Literature, Artnet news, Surface Mag : 16,000 artists have signed their names in support of a letter that condemns Israel’s recent attack on Gaza and denounces the country’s apartheid system. The letter states that "To frame this as a war between two equal sides is false and misleading. Israel is the colonizing power. Palestine is colonized. This is not a conflict: this is apartheid."  The letter also calls on other countries “to cut trade, economic and cultural relations” with Israel. 

If you are familiar with Inverted Syntax's mission and work we publish, you have an idea of how we feel about injustice. Inverted Syntax adds its voice to all those demanding an end to the ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians, as well as an end to the Israeli occupation, and an end to US-funded cycles of violence.

Inverted Syntax, as an art and literary magazine—and its editors—stand for justice and liberation, for freedom, and equality--for peace, which also means that we unequivocally reject racism in all forms: Settler Colonialism, Anti-Semitism, Zionism, Apartheid, and Islamophobia. It is therefore without question that we are opposed to both the USA and Israeli governments’ colonial, ethnocratic, racist policies towards the Palestinian people.  

History teaches us that the Israeli settler-colonial narrative is essentially a reproduction of the original Euro-modern/colonial discourse. By employing a range of racist and dehumanizing language, the USA and Israel and other western nations have delegitimized the struggle of Palestinians. By labeling them as “beasts” and “barbaric” and recently as "human animals" as noted by Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, all Palestinians are vilified. These Euro-colonial racist foundations, perpetuated through mainstream media, underpin the license to invade, settle, and commit genocide. These actions point to a colossal, collective failure of human society.

Who are we if we do not speak out against such grave injustices?

The great civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer noted that “nobody's free until everybody's free.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Our liberty is inextricably bound with that of the liberty of every oppressed person. In a world of marginalized lives, of marginalized hope, we at Inverted Syntax will continue to work to create, curate, and live in the hope that literature and art can be voices for political transformation and liberation for all people, particularly those who experience ongoing violent oppression.

We’d like to close with Gideon Levy, who said “one cannot conflate necessary and legitimate criticism of the Israeli occupation, or even of Zionism, with antisemitism. If Israel commits war crimes, they must be opposed and condemned. This is more than a right; it is an obligation.” We at Inverted Syntax are acutely aware of the controversy surrounding public outcries of the current Israeli government's politics of extermination but we feel it is our moral obligation to join the voices that condemn apartheid regimes. We call on activists and those in the arts "to exercise their agency within their institutions and localities to support the Palestinian struggle for decolonization to the best of their ability. Israeli apartheid is sustained by international complicity, it is our collective responsibility to redress this harm." 
​
Inverted Syntax values and respects the tapestry of work we have received over the years, which has embodied the essence of our mission and highlights our shared humanity and diversity. 

What happens now—how we choose to use our voice—is our legacy; yours as much as ours, dear reader.

Palestinians are yearning for justice and liberation. Let us amplify the voices of all those who seek the freedom of oppressed people, as that is the path to peace and our human coexistence.

Respectfully yours,
Inverted Syntax Editors,
Nawal, Allissa, Yesica, Melanie, Jesica, and Emma

Contributing Editor,
​Adrianne Kalfopoulou

Resources / Take Action 

“What we know from past Israeli state atrocities against Palestinians is that the bombs only stop once there is a sufficient mass outcry from the international community,” said Jewish Voice for Peace member, Eliza Klein. “It’s on us to build that outcry — as fast as we possibly can.”

If you’d like to support/take action, we encourage you first to do some homework.
Perhaps diversify your social media feed and consider what these voices have to say about Israel and Palestine: 

Social media accounts
​ 
Democracy Now
Let's Talk Palestine
Jewish Voice For Peace
Stroll PDX 
Sim Kern
Yara Eid
Naomi Klein 
Middle East Eye
Matthew Cooke
Mariam Barghouti
AJ+
Heavy Discussion 

Resources 

Teach Palestine The Teach Palestine Project website is a resource out of California by and for K-12 teachers and teacher educators focused on bringing Palestine into our classrooms and schools. 

Sample videos :
​
​ “Daniel Levy confronts BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri’s outline of the Israeli response in Gaza. Levy is a former official negotiator for the Israeli government in peace talks with the Palestinians under Prime Ministers Rabin and Barak. He served as the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative. He is a board member of the New Israel Fund and a founder of J Street.”

Gideon Levy's 2018 brilliant keynote address on Zionism to the National Press Club. Levy is an Israeli journalist and author and considered the “dean” of Israeli journalism—as well as known as “the most hated man in Israel.”  His book, The Punishment of Gaza, was published in 2010 by Verso Publishing House in London and New York.

​A brief, detailed overview of how Palestinians were expelled from their homes and Israel was formed​

Digital content

• Palestinian Myths database: the most prominent myths and talking points related to the Palestinian question, as well as their debunking.
• Do you know what Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, and Faith Washing is?

Suggested books: 

• https://decolonizepalestine.com/reading-list/ 
• A Reading List on the Palestinian Experience in the Face of Oppression:
  Books about Palestinians and the struggle for Palestinian liberation

Additional reading 
Some devastating facts on the magnitude of this particular violence:

• Israeli Government drops 6,000 bombs in Gaza in 6 days, nearly matching US total in Afghanistan in 1 year (Gaza is less than 1% the size of Afghanistan)
• More Palestinian Children Were Killed in 1 Week Than Ukrainian Children Were Killed in 1 Year
• “One Palestinian child in Gaza killed every 15 minutes by Israeli forces.” 
• United Nations Security Council Meeting 2016: Israel’s Settlements Have No Legal Validity, Constitute Flagrant Violation of International Law, Security Council Reaffirms 

Our American tax dollars fund this. 

Ways to take action

• Call Congress Consider adding to your script that you will not vote for them since that is what matters to our elected officials
• 5 Calls :  They provide you with a script and tell you who to call for your chosen issue, from Representatives and Senators to Governors and Attorneys General. Once you mark the result of your call, they’ll show you the next person’s number.​
• Sign the “President Biden, Call a Ceasefire” petition 

Boycott ​

• Amnesty International: “Advocating for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is a form of non-violent advocacy and of free expression that must be protected,” said Bob Goodfellow, the Interim Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, in a statement [2020]. “The US administration is following Israeli government’s approach in using false and politically motivated accusations of antisemitism to harm peaceful activists.”
• Palestinian international calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). BDS is a set of tactics called for by 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in the struggle to achieve freedom, justice, and equality. Such tactics have a long and storied history in struggles for justice around the world. Palestinians aim to employ them to end international complicity in the Israeli regime of occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism.
• On February 12, 2020, the United Nations released a list of businesses involved in the illegal Israeli settlements. TripAdvisor, alongside Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com are included in this list. Puma is also noted: Its sponsorship of the IFA maintains its direct involvement in human rights and international law violations off the field in supporting the existence and expansion of Israel’s settlement regime.
• The underlying guidelines for the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) advocate for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions for their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law.