The months leading up to Les Mòniques for Palestine Week: assemblies, reflection periods and a shared ideology
From the start of their residency, the 2025–2026 Les Mòniques identified a mutual concern that called on them to connect and organise: the need to speak out, take a stance and mobilise in response to the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Through conversations among Les Mòniques from across all disciplines, a collective will emerged to convene, assert themselves as artists, and constitute a collective political subject. This led to the formation of the Les Mòniques for Palestine Assembly, a forum for discussing significant issues and suggesting practical solutions within the Santa Mònica.
The assembly has met weekly since then, yielding a number of outcomes: a collectively written manifesto, a series of internal training sessions and reflection periods at the beginning of November, and a programme of public activities during the last week of March.
This schedule was not arbitrary: dates were chosen to align with milestones in the Palestinian people’s struggle. On 2 November, attention was drawn to the Palestinian people’s condemnation of the Balfour Declaration (1917), in which the British Government expressed its support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. For its part, the end-of-March programme was linked to Palestinian Land Day (30 March).
The first activity took place on 5 and 6 November, during a reflection period that Les Mòniques had set aside for collective inquiry into specific themes. This was conceived as an opportunity for the resident artists to deepen their understanding and engage in relevant dialogue. The idea was to create a fertile ground from which to develop and shape the programme of activities they would present to the public.
On Tuesday 5 November, two speakers were invited to share their expertise: Aritz García Gómez (a Sodepau activist, social mediator and specialist in international relations and settler colonialism in Palestine and Argentinian Patagonia) and Laurent Cohen Medina (co-chair of Junts – Catalan Association of Jews and Palestinians).
Aritz García Gómez traced the history of the Zionist settler-colonial enterprise in Palestine, while Laurent Cohen Medina shared real-life stories foregrounding anti-Zionist Jews who support the Palestinian people’s struggle and resistance. Both speakers then produced an article summarising their contributions, linked at the end of this post.
After the talks, the gastronomy collective hosted a shared meal featuring a range of Palestinian dishes, creating an informal space for reflection and conversation.
The following day, Wednesday 6 November, a discussion and cooking workshop was held with Asma Ismail, an activist and member of Samidoun. This was a chance to engage with the experiences of Palestinian refugees, exploring a variety of situations and challenges through personal stories and focusing on the relationship between culture and food. The dish prepared was bulgur with chickpeas and a green salad.
The assemblies and reflection periods culminated in the creation of a collective manifesto outlining the principles that underpin Les Mòniques for Palestine’s position and actions:
Given the ongoing genocide and the sustained campaign of colonial erasure targeting every aspect of Palestinian life, we as cultural producers, artists, architects and writers must take a stand and act responsibly. The Palestinian archive – representing a people, a land, an identity and a collective memory – is under threat of total erasure.
We therefore pledge to come together, to create, to resist that erasure, and to keep Palestine present and alive in memory, in our practices, our spaces and our archives, now and into the future.
In light of the above, we as Les Mòniques have chosen to harness our privileged position within the institution to engage in political action and open up spaces for critical dialogue. We hope to shine a light on forms of knowledge that have been overshadowed by dominant war narratives. This refers not only to the Palestinian people, but also to regions across the Global South that have been overcome by extractive economic systems.
Through this process of shared learning, we have taken the following positions:
1. We condemn the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people perpetrated by the State of Israel, the United States and their allies, and we call for its immediate end.
1. We condemn the apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinian people by the State of Israel and its allies, and we call for guarantees to enable a process of Palestinian self-governance.
1. We condemn the colonial enterprise of the State of Israel on the ancestral land of the Palestinian people, and we call for a process of rematriation for Palestinian refugees that restores their land, cultural assets, knowledge and practices, including a process of reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
1. We recognise the right of the Palestinian people to legitimate resistance and self-determination, and we support the boycott of the State of Israel in all its forms.
1. We condemn the state of starvation imposed on the Palestinian people by the State of Israel and its allies as part of its genocidal campaign and ethnic cleansing.
1. We call for the prosecution and conviction of those responsible for genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.
1. We call for the prosecution and conviction of the companies and economic interests financing and profiting from genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.
1. We condemn the criminalisation of movements in solidarity with the Palestinian people by the State of Israel and allied governments.
1. We condemn the complicity of Spain and the European Union in the genocide of the Palestinian people perpetrated by the State of Israel, and we call for the immediate end of all complicit relations with the State of Israel.
1. We consider it essential to recognise that the genocide and apartheid imposed on the Palestinian people are not an isolated case, but part of a broader system of colonial domination across the Global South and its structures of oppression. The struggle of the Palestinian people is the struggle of all.
1. We reject and distrust any continuation of colonising strategies under the false name of “peace agreements”. There is no peace without justice. We call for peace agreements grounded in reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, led by the Palestinian people.
– Assembly of Les Mòniques for Palestine 2025–2026
