We have so many questions. What can a performing arts festival do in the face of the unprecedented atrocity we are witnessing day after day? What sense is there in holding it when horror is unfolding before our very eyes? Why not stop everything given the unspeakable genocide that so seriously violates human rights and international law, and calls into question the very institutions we once trusted so much?

A newspaper recently published a piece by a young Gazan, Nerm, in which he described how, at times, a ray of sunlight above the fumes from the bombings, a caress from his mother, or an unexpected smile from his brother would bring him a fleeting moment of peace. How, amid such destruction, they continued to love, to share jokes, to talk about what their lives used to be like. If the Palestinian people, so besieged, devastated and humiliated, are able to find hope, how could we not do the same from here?

TNT joins the resistance, the optimistic resistance, in the struggle against despair, frustration, and exhaustion, and shares the intense desire to transform so much hatred and cruelty into joy. Our voice joins the thunderous cries demanding an immediate halt to this unacceptable mass extermination of an innocent population, to this indiscriminate abuse of the strong over the weak.

We are going ahead with the festival because we believe that give rise to hope is also our duty.

To share pain, frustration and sorrow. To share an irreparable wound that will mark an entire century, and one we will find very difficult to explain and to bear.

To ensure that it never happens again, because nothing is lost, and it is always worth carrying on.

We will hold TNT with boldness and great determination. To fight against genocide, yes, but also against the shadow that now, hovers like a vulture, over our world.

– Marion Betriu with the support of the TNT Festival team