A two-day Palestine Solidarity Festival will begin at the K.P. Basu Memorial Hall of Jadavpur University from Tuesday to express solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the continuing Israeli military assault on Gaza.

The programme will be organised by the Palestine Coalition.

"Across the world, cultural and academic platforms have increasingly emerged as spaces of protest, remembrance and resistance — an effort the organisers say this festival seeks to be part of. When silence is enforced, culture turns into resistance," said Arkaprabha, a spokesperson for the Palestine Coalition, a platform comprising students and professionals who will organise the event.

The two-day event will feature seminars on what the organisers have described as the “Gaza genocide”, alongside cultural performances, film screenings, music, readings and street plays. Journalists, academics, artists and activists will participate in the festival, using art and dialogue to protest what they call the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and to affirm solidarity with the Palestinian resistance movement.

Arkaprabha said: “Several artistes from Palestine and from other parts of the world have reached out to the people of Calcutta to extend support to this solidarity movement, which is being held across the globe against Israeli aggression.”

The festival has also received messages of support from Gaza itself.

In an emotional video message sent from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian artist Ilham Al-Asal thanked the people of Calcutta for standing with Palestine.

“Thank you for standing with our beloved country, Palestine. This support and solidarity make us feel that our voice is heard and prove to us that there is justice in the world,” she said.

“Thank you to the Palestine Solidarity Festival organised by the city of Calcutta in India for making our voices heard. Beautiful Palestine and the beautiful Palestinian people only want to live in peace and security. We do not want wars, we do not want genocide or the killings that are happening. We only want to live in peace and security. I hope our voice reaches everyone.”

According to the organisers, singer Arko Mukherjee and dancer Shruti Ghosh will perform on the first day of the festival, while the singing group Varna Ananya and several other bands will perform on the second day.