Arnolfini closes for the weekend following sit-protest
The Arnolfini kept its doors closed all weekend following a sit-in protest at the venue on Friday evening. It was criticised for cancelling two events that were part of the Bristol Palestine Film festival[1] citing rules around ‘political activity’. Since the cancellations, 2,253 people put their name to an open letter[2] accusing the Arnolfini being unwilling to ‘stand with Palestinians and war crimes and genocide being committed in Gaza’.
Bristol activist group Rise Up For Palestine was behind the Friday sit-in protest and had planned to hold another one on yesterday. But after the protest, the Arnolfini shared a post on Instagram saying that the bookshop and galleries would be closed over the weekend. It said the closure was to ‘take care of the team at Arnolfini’.
Stating their opposition to the Arnolfini’s decision to cancel the scheduled events, Rise Up for Palestine said on Instagram: “It appears that Arnolfini has been comfortable, until now, hosting political events with explicitly liberationist, decolonial, feminist and intersectional themes and narratives. But when it comes to a clear-cut genocide, then Arnolfini does not think that giving a voice to Palestinians is right for them. The open letter to the Arnolfini[5] questions the venue’s claim that the cancellation is the result of the need to meet legal obligations as a charity.
It highlights that the venue hosted previously the Bristol Palestine Film Festival, Raise The Bar and the rapper Lowkey, alongside events with ‘overtly political themes’.
The group behind the Arnolfini sit-in recently held a similar protest in Starbucks in the Horsefair.
The Arnolfini was approached for a comment
References
- ^ the Bristol Palestine Film festival (bristolpff.org.uk)
- ^ open letter (docs.google.com)
- ^ Sit-in protest planned at Arnolfini after venue cancels Palestine events (www.bristolpost.co.uk)
- ^ Arnolfini faces backlash after cancellation of Palestine events (www.bristolpost.co.uk)
- ^ The open letter to the Arnolfini (docs.google.com)