FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Drama for Life at Wits University Calls for Humanity Amid Gaza Atrocities.
Johannesburg, South Africa – 29 September 2025
Drama for Life at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg – a vibrant, intersectional home for artists, activists, educators, community workers and psychotherapeutic practitioners – welcomes and celebrates African and other Indigenous Spiritual traditions, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and all other faith traditions as well as non-religious and non-spiritual perspectives, alongside the rich tapestry of races, languages, cultures, and nationalities.
From this place of profound inclusivity, we speak with one voice: what is happening in Gaza cannot be accepted. Our condemnation targets not people – Jewish, Palestinian, or any other – but the dehumanising violence and man-made starvation that violate the dignity of life itself. We stand firmly for shared humanity across nationality, culture, race, creed, religion, gender and sexuality.
Just as we condemn the violent attacks on the 7th of October 2023 and the loss of innocent lives they caused, we condemn what is transpiring in Gaza. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found on 16 September 2025 that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, on 1 September 2025, passed a resolution declaring Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide under the 1948 Convention. Famine now grips Gaza: 640,000 people – nearly one-third of the population – face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5). Gaza has seen this crisis escalate. Save the Children warns that 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition.
The UN and Human Rights Watch document over 62,800 deaths and 158,600 injuries since March 2025, amid deliberate restrictions on food, water, medicine, and fuel. Israeli organisations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, on 28 July 2025, declared Israel is committing genocide and called for it to stop. We echo the urgent ethical appeal from the ‘Silence is a Crime’ forum of Israeli psychologists – “An Urgent Ethical Appeal: Psychologists from Israel Call on the International Professional Community” – to break the silence on the unprecedented atrocities in Gaza, labelling them potential genocide and demanding an immediate, unconditional cessation of killing and starvation (Hebrew: https://silenceisacrime.org/letter_he/; Arabic: https://silenceisacrime.org/letter_ar/). The International Court of Justice found plausible cause for genocide and ordered Israel to ensure aid access and civilian protection. These acts violate international law and moral conscience.
Drama for Life condemns Israel’s Netanyahu government and the Israeli Defence Force unconditionally – yet we do not condemn individual Israeli citizens committed to peace, diversity, equality, and democracy for all. We see Gaza not alone, but as a symbol of 21st-century dehumanisation in places like Sudan, Congo, Yemen, and Syria. From South Africa, we honour Palestine’s historic support in our liberation and recognise parallels in systemic inequality rooted in colonialism and capitalism – though ours is not genocide, the shared wound of exclusion calls us to heal together. We reject religion or ideology used to justify suffering. We invite all colleagues – local, regional, international – to join our call: an immediate, sustainable ceasefire, the safe release of remaining Israeli hostages, and unrestricted aid corridors.
The arts can heal, bridge and rebuild dignity. Together, let’s demand accountability, protect Palestinian and Israeli hostage lives, and build a world where humanity prevails.
Drama for Life recommits itself to an arts-based intersectional and academic, creative, clinical, and development community that embraces social justice and healing. We are a community that wholeheartedly rejects discrimination, more specifically racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Drama for Life remains committed to finding ways to bear witness to trauma, conflict and hold people in spaces of listening, compassion and understanding in and through the arts.
About Drama for Life: Based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Drama for Life is an interdisciplinary arts department fostering social justice and human rights through activism, theatre, education, and therapy, uniting diverse communities to heal trauma and amplify solidarity.
Contact: info.dfl@wits.ac.za
Sources:
International Association of Genocide Scholars (1 September 2025 resolution), Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (22 August 2025), Save the Children (2025 child malnutrition briefing), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, casualty figures), Human Rights Watch (2025 Gaza report), Palestinian Ministry of Health (death & injury tally), B’Tselem (28 July 2025 statement), Physicians for Human Rights Israel (28 July 2025 statement), International Court of Justice (preliminary measures order, 2024/25), ‘Silence Is A Crime’ Forum (2025 ethical appeal), UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (16 September 2025 report), University of the Witwatersrand archives (South Africa-Palestine solidarity history).
Issued by Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand