“Cultural Actors from various backgrounds and disciplines come together to support all forms of art, multiculturalism, festivals, events, and good policy practices. They work always towards promoting peace, acceptance, and inclusion.
The Supernova festival, held in the Negev region of Israel, had been planned for weeks, and festival goers were celebrating the day before yesterday the Simchat Torah.
Thousands of visitors, mostly young, art enthusiasts, and listeners, flocked in the festival to celebrate through music, acceptance, joy, and peace.
The Israel Festival massacre by brutal militant’s local factions and irregular forces on Saturday 7 October 2023, marks the beginning of a new era concerning the understanding of newly formed socio-political phenomena, the importance of the arts in promoting peace, and the measures that must be taken to prevent such heinous acts.
Today, the tragic toll of the music festival massacre in Israel has risen to over 260 innocent people, mostly young individuals, with this number increasing and an unknown but significant number of citizens abducted by groups of militants.
This is a direct attack to all cultures, and a direct attack to humanity. Acts of war and terrorist attacks, regardless of their origin, hinder the ongoing dialogue for peace and the efforts of nations to find a solution, placing the responsibility on the shoulders of all the world’s states and organisations.
We urge all cultural and creative industries regulatory authorities, cultural actors, agencies and artists to unite their efforts to prevent such shameful and reprehensible acts in the future. This should commence with the promotion of relevant cultural expressions, thereby sending a clear message to deter future occurrences of these atrocities.
We call on the Hamas factions and irregular forces responsible for the attacks to immediately release Israeli and other hostages. We urge all attacking forces to cease fire and call upon all parties involved to exercise restraint.”
Panayiotis Neufelt
Chairman
International Cultural and Creative Industries Regulatory Authority – ICCIRA
