Poet, author and human rights lawyer Sara M. Saleh recently penned the essay Palestine as Liberatory Praxis for Meanjin – digging into how traditionally 'progressive' spaces have remained silent and complicit about human rights abuses in Palestine.

Sara and the Spin Cycle team discuss how several established arts organisations, festivals and media platforms have silenced and failed to support artists and Palestinian allies in recent months.

“You have arts festivals who are hosting singers who are to say the very least – problematic – while disinviting Palestinian bands… all of this is to say is what we’re seeing is a trend, this very deliberate by design, weaponizing of cultural safety and respectability and neutrality to silence Palestinian artists and our friends/allies and to keep us out.”

Photo credit: Stefanie Zingsheim