Introduction

commitment and complicity

Begüm Özden Fırat

Sarah De Mul

pp. 1-20

in: Begüm Özden Fırat, Sarah De Mul, Sonja van Wichelen (eds), Commitment and complicity in cultural theory and practice, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

In this era dominated by the War on Terror, the concept of commitment and its corollary appeal to 'speak up" against threats of global violence have reemerged in various public settings. On the August 3, 2006, for instance, a letter was published in The Guardian, entitled "War Crimes and Lebanon" which was signed by a number of distinguished intellectuals.¹ While the "international community stood and watched", as the petition read, the 'state terror inflicted on Lebanon is being repeated in the Gaza ghetto". The public intellectuals accused the governments of Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom of committing war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine, and offered their solidarity to those who mounted a resistance against it and support to the victims. They declared: "For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes."