‘An Abhorrent Act of Erasure’ - Stitch Their Names Exhibition Cancelled

The names of thousands of men, women and children killed by Israel in Gaza are memorialised in the embroidered panels.

We are sad to announce that the Stitch their Names exhibition which we were due to co-host with Hastings PSC at St John’s Church in October has been cancelled.  

The exhibition of embroidered panels, an act of remembrance created by hundreds of stitchers around the world, memorialising the names of those thousands upon thousands of children, women and men killed in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, came under attack during its latest showing in Leeds Minster this month.

It was intended to run from 10^th-22^nd September but was closed abruptly by the Bishop of Leeds after accusations from the pro-Israel Jewish Representative Council of Leeds that there were 18 names  amongst the 16,800 displayed of ‘known terrorists’.

This accusation came unsourced, and so far, there has been no proof provided or found.

Nevertheless, the Bishop ordered the exhibition to close immediately. This was swiftly followed by an instruction from our local diocesan bishop to the rector of St John’s to cancel the local exhibition.

The powerful and moving exhibition came under attack in Leeds.

We are clear that this decision lay beyond the rector’s control – our group has a good relationship with the rector and he has been very supportive of hosting this important exhibition. 

We also clear that although this is a setback – we have been working to bring this exhibition to Hastings for the best part of a year – it will not stop the exhibition going ahead.

The genocide is ongoing. The reasons to show it are as urgent today as they were a year ago.

Attempts to erase the names of those slaughtered are abhorrent and we will work to ensure a suitable venue is found as soon as possible.

The Stitch Their Names Project released a statement in the wake of the closure, calling the attack on the exhibition ‘a brazen attempt to smear and delegitimise the love and empathy of hundreds of stitchers and thousands of followers for their fellow human beings’.

The statement went on: ‘To some, it is the fact that we name them at all that is the threat. Naming is a recognition of their humanity, and, by implication, a recognition that a terrible crime is taking place right now, on our watch.’

It concluded: ‘At this point, silence is complicity.’

The statement has received over 9,000 likes and hundreds of supportive comments on Instagram.

The statement by The Stitch Their Names Together project has prompted an outpouring of support,

As the first Jewish group due to host the exhibition, we published our own statement on the Stitch their Names website, which ended: ‘It is cruelly disheartening to learn of attempts to silence the voices of those of us –Jewish and not Jewish – who seek to hold in honoured memory those whose names will otherwise disappear, along with their bodies under the rubble; and the attempt thereby to make permanent the dehumanisation and erasure of those precious children and their parents, in death as they were erased in life.  We are all the children of God.’

This has also received thousands of likes and hundreds of supportive comments. Both statements can be read in full at the Stitch their Names website here.

Jewish Voice for Liberation has published a piece about the shutting down of the exhibition which can be read here.

Watch this space for details of a new venue and exhibition date.