Artists and Cultural Workers against Genocide and Artwashing at WOMEX25 Worldwide Music Expo in Tampere

Artists and delegates from around the world stand together to demand justice and accountability in the global music community. Music is supposed to unite us beyond borders, but over the past years of genocide in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank the silence of WOMEX and other labels, festivals and institutions threatens our very humanity. We refuse the normalization of apartheid, genocide, and cultural whitewashing disguised as “diversity.”

We call on WOMEX and Piranha Arts to

• publicly acknowledge the ethical and structural implications of showcasing Israeli state-linked, IDF supporter artists amid an ongoing genocide investigation by the International Court of Justice.
• decolonise the leadership structure of WOMEX.
• develop and publish a transparent ethical framework for programming artists from regions under occupation or conflict — guided by Palestinian artists, international human-rights and cultural-justice experts — to provide their duty of care to artists and prevent artwashing from masking oppression through culture.
• stand in solidarity and create safer spaces for Palestinians and other oppressed communities by rejecting “two-sideism” that platforms artists complicit in or supporting state violence.

We remind all cultural institutions that music stands for justice, and real solidarity cannot be neutral.

Artists and cultural workers can read and sign the full statement at bitt.ly/decolonizewomex.