More than 500 Korean writers issued a statement urging the Israeli government to halt the massacre in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The Writers Association of Korea, the publishing house ‘Faces’, and the civil society coalition ‘Emergency Action of Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine’ held a ‘Press Conference to Announce One-Line Statements by Korean Writers on the 1,000th Day of the Gaza Strip Massacre’ on the 6th at Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul, in front of the Israeli Embassy in Korea.

They carried out a one-line statement campaign in solidarity with Palestine from the 2nd to the 31st of last month, marking the 1,000th day since Israel began airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. A total of 501 writers and citizens joined the campaign, including Na Hee-deok, Song Kyung-dong, Ko Sun-kyung, Kwon Kim Hyun-young, Shin Hae-uk, Ye So-yeon, Oh Eun, Woo Da-young, Jeong Bora, Jin Eun-young, and Anton Hur.

The Writers Association of Korea explained, “Participants, as witnesses to the violence, have recorded this time, declared resistance and hope, and sent sentences in their own words condemning Israel for colonial rule, military occupation, and genocide against Palestine.”

Poet Shin Hae-uk stated in a one-line statement, “What must be dismantled is the Zionist state of Israel. Israel will be left in name only as a symbol of evil. It will become a universal curse.” Novelist Jeong Bora said, “Palestine will be Free (Palestine will become free).”

The one-line statements are being released sequentially on official social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook (@wordsforgaza), and will later be used in various ways, including related exhibitions and workshops, and the creation of an archive.

Poet Na Hee-deok, who attended the press conference that day, recited a poem titled ‘A Hell Called Gaza’ and criticized the Israeli government.

“Bombs pour down on refugee camps/ A person trying to receive relief supplies is shot and collapses/ (omitted) A Holocaust carried out by Jews who experienced the Holocaust,/ Why do they not see the Hitler within themselves/ Why do they try to build a hell called Gaza on Palestinian land”