MEDELLÍN / PNN / 

 At the conclusion of the 35th edition of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín, Colombia, 46 poets from around the world signed a statement expressing solidarity with Palestine and denouncing the cultural and physical genocide in Gaza and across Palestine.

The signatories of the statement called for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which killed 58,479 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 139,355 others, lifting the siege on the Strip, and a halt to Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people.

In their statement, the poets affirmed their unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people, their just cause, and their deep-rooted indigenous culture in the face of what they described as a historical genocide and cultural erasure in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

They condemned the Israeli occupation, which has been bent upon driven by a century-long impulse to eradicate the Palestinian people from their land and undermine their legitimate aspirations by targeting schools, universities, publishing houses, libraries, museums, and stealing antiquities in Gaza.

They also condemned the continued expansion of Israeli colonies, land theft, home demolitions, and daily arrests in the West Bank, where the occupation forces have severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions, in addition to the separation wall, racial segregation, and the de-Palestinization of Jerusalem.

The signatories reiterated their collective call for an end to Israel’s war of extermination and starvation on Gaza, as well as for reining in the Israeli occupation’s urge to kill and destroy.

The statement concluded by stressing that the Palestinian people—who have always been and will remain an essential part of the human family through their rich cultural and civilizational contributions—are not only defending their sacred and human heritage on their holy land but are also defending the spiritual values that matter to all of humanity. They are not defending only their own freedom but the very idea of freedom in the world, for global freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.

The 35th edition of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín took place from July 5 to 12, 2025 under the theme “Poetry to Rebuild the Human Spirit”. Among the poets invited to the festival is the Palestinian poet Murad Sudani.