PRO-Palestine artists and activists are set to stage a week-long takeover event at a Scottish arts centre in protest over recent policy on Israel.
Organised by Art Workers for Palestine Scotland, the event at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow – running from Tuesday to Saturday – will feature events, workshops and screenings that showcase Palestinian art and culture and interrogate “the complicity of Scottish cultural institutions” in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The takeover will be held in the public courtyard in what was described as a response to the CCA board’s recent refusal to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy or endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
The PACBI advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions.
Earlier this year, an open letter signed by more than 800 artists, workers and audiences urged the CCA to take action to endorse PACBI and align policy with its public values, but the board has reportedly refused.
A spokesperson for Art Workers for Palestine Scotland said: “The board’s decision not to endorse PACBI reveals a disturbing trend of institutional complicity.
“We cannot stand by as our cultural spaces are used to sanitise genocide. This takeover is a community-led act of transformation reclaiming CCA as a space of justice, resistance and Palestinian cultural life.
“We are here to show the depth and breadth of solidarity with Palestine in Glasgow and beyond. Through this takeover, we centre Palestinian voices and culture while holding our institutions to account.
“Another CCA is possible and urgently necessary.”
The CCA has been approached for comment.
Art Workers for Palestine Scotland also recently called out the Glasgow Film Theatre’s (GFT) decision not to endorse BDS and PACBI.
Glasgow Film said this was in order to retain "independent decision making" and uphold its "commitment to Cinema For All".
Three members of the GFT board resigned, raising concerns about the processes leading to the decision.
Art Workers for Palestine Scotland said: "It will go down in history that, given the opportunity to stand with the Palestinian people following months of genocide and starvation at the hands of a colonial oppressor, the GFT chose complicity, cowardice and blatant disregard for human life."
Earlier this year, front-of-house and cleaning staff at the GFT staged a boycott on handling any goods connected to the BDS movement, which resulted in Coca-Cola products no longer being served.
Campaign group Art Workers for Palestine Scotland then published an open letter to the GFT calling for the cinema to adhere to the BDS movement and endorse PACBI.
The letter was signed by more than 1400 people and included the likes of Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the rector of the University of Glasgow, and filmmaker Ken Loach.
