LaTetlaa'i - GLOBAL ART MOBILIZATION

La Tetlaa’i – global video in support of Gaza
www.globalartmobilization.org

Call for mobilization of arts, artists and society.

This music video of the Palestinian folk song La Tetlaa’i (“Don’t leave”) is a collaboration between an international group of 67 musicians and Palestinian choirs and musicians currently struggling to survive in Gaza. It is not only a cry saying that the time is running out for Gazans, nor simply a symbol of solidarity with Gazan artists. Above all it is proof of the existence and persistence of hope, creativity, aesthetics and humanity that have been targeted for destruction for 78 years, up to and including open genocide. Sustaining culture is an important part of the Palestinian struggle for the preservation of national identity and for survival as a nation.

At the same time, the La Tetlaa’i video is a call on cultural workers the world over to act together, from 1 to 7 September, to increase the pressure on decision-takers in support of the Palestinian people through their activities and performances. Specifically, we call on cultural workers to use their performances to protest the machinery of genocide and the conspiracy of silence, as well as to appeal to the public to engage in the day to day – in various institutions, in schools and in academia, in the media, at sporting events, in the streets, when shopping and travelling, at home or at work. Culture and arts must step out of the shadows or risk being engulfed by the darkness spread by autocratic and criminal regimes of our times. Where there is no place for humanism, there is none for culture, art and freedom of expression either.

How the La Tetlaa’i video was created

It was one of the central projects of the Float 2 Gaza programme that was part of the Floating Castle festival at Snežnik, Slovenia. On August 7 2025 the festival thus brought together Palestinian artists and artists from all over the world. After that event the organising team of Float 2 Gaza morphed into an open collective to foster new projects of cultural connection and collaboration to support the people of Gaza.

The aim of the video is to reassert that artists’ collaboration can break the blockade of Gaza, and that arts and culture can be used as tools against silence, isolation and genocide.

The video is the result of a call for collaboration by Slovenian and Palestinian musicians that was answered by their peers from around the world. Guitarists, singers, rappers, string players, percussionists and others recorded their contributions in the midst of their everyday lives, weaving into the video glimpses of their respective environments, from Alpine pastures to a Mumbai station to ruins in Gaza. Thus they have formed a global orchestra bringing together artists from different realites.

More on the Global Art Mobilization initiative

The Global Art Mobilization initiative was launched by the Float 2 Gaza collective. The collective has been putting together a toolkit for rebelling in culture and for calling for protest and civil disobedience. It is also creating a database of artists from Gaza and the whole of Palestine interested in different international collaborations. The aim is to support musicians, actors, storytellers, painters and other artists from Gaza and the West Bank who persist in their work in what remains of their music schools, theatres, libraries, galleries and academies, keeping alive their creativity, humanity and their identity in the face of endless massacres and inhuman conditions of life.

The dates from 1 to 14 september 2025 have been chosen to coincide with the Sumud Flotilla, the international humanitarian flotilla launched on Sunday 31 August to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“When silence masks the truth, it becomes a lie. And when silence is complicit in human suffering and in genocide, it becomes a crime against humanity in its own right.” (From the manifesto A Call to Arts!)

The Float 2 Gaza collective,
in the name of Sara Hamed Alkarnawi

FLOAT 2 GAZA COLLECTIVE
FLOATING CASTLE FESTIVAL 2025