Aubrey Drake Graham is the latest celebrity to sign Artists4Ceasefire’s letter calling for an end to violence in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter, addressed to President Joe Biden, asks world leaders to end the “devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.” Thus far, hundreds of public figures, including Jordan Peele, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper and Dua Lipa, have signed the letter.
“We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine,” the letter reads.
“We ask that, as President of the United States, you and the US Congress call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.”
Drake’s friend and longtime collaborator, Noah “40” Shebib, has also signed the letter and issued a statement of his own as well.
“Believing in both the human rights of Palestinians and the right and need of a Jewish state has meant I have always had friends on both sides. And beyond the physical war, seeing them be pushed into extremism by such acts of violence is distressing,” he wrote on Instagram.
“This is what colonialism looks like. It’s what it’s always looked like. When will this stop? When will life win over death? The world did not come and stand with the Jewish people during the holocaust. Now we watch as the world does not come and stand with Palestine. I’m ashamed and devastated by it all.”
