Issuing a three-page statement yesterday (19 August), the UK and Australian branches of AD said the time had come for the profession to speak up on what it called the ‘deliberate destruction of life, land, and cultural infrastructure in Gaza’.

Since October 2023, Palestinian health authorities claim around 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. The United Nations (UN) says around 70 per cent of those deaths are women and children.

The UN also estimates that around 436,000 homes – or 92 per cent of dwellings – have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war in October 2023. This includes hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure in Palestinian cities such as Gaza City, Rafah and Khan Yunis, which have been targeted by Israeli military.

AD, which issued ‘a sincere apology for not speaking out sooner’ on the 22-month long conflict, said the mounting death toll and reports of environmental and urban devastation in the occupied territory had led to a moment ‘at which silence is unconscionable’.

The organisation, which subscribes to 12 pledges to tackle the climate crisis backed by more than a thousand UK signatories, said: ‘We believe that point has been reached with the deliberate starvation of children and the scale of human suffering now unfolding.

‘As architects, we are committed to addressing the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and social injustice.’

It added: ‘We cannot remain silent in the face of the ongoing, deliberate destruction of life, land and cultural infrastructure in Gaza.’

The statement called on Architects Declare’s signatories and the wider profession in the UK and Australia to support humanitarian organisations in Palestine; to amplify voices of groups such as the Architects for Gaza collective of registered architects; to contact their MPs; and to ‘advocate for peace, environmental justice, and reparative rebuilding’.

‘[Architects should] be cognisant of the work we do as architects in many countries, not just in the UK, and the unintended local impacts of this’, the statement added. ‘There are many conflicts and humanitarian and ecological crises around the world and the ongoing destruction in Gaza should bring home to us all the need for justice in all we do.’

Architects Declare has 1,402 signatories in the UK and 1,233 in Australia. The charity’s 12th declaration point says that signatories should ‘support those who are working for climate justice and strive to ensure equity and an improved quality of life for all’.

In June, the international chapters of Architects’ Climate Action Network (ACAN) joined wider calls for a ceasefire. The group said in a joint statement that it was ‘horrified by the relentless systematic targeting of civilians, [and] the widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure’ in Gaza, which, it suggested, was suffering a ‘genocide’.

An estimated 1,200 Israelis, including more than 360 young people at a music festival, were killed and over 250 were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023. The pro-Palestinian group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK and other governments.

The Israeli government, led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has consistently said that the war in Gaza is morally justified to defend Israel, free the hostages, and eliminate Hamas.

It insists that Hamas, the United Nations, witnesses, aid workers and foreign governments are lying about the suffering and starvation of civilians.

In a news conference conducted in English for the international media on 10 August, Netanyahu condemned  such reports, saying he wished ‘to puncture the lies… the only ones that are being starved in Gaza are our hostages’.

Here in Britain, four individuals from the architectural sector were arrested on 9 August for displaying messages supporting UK-designated terrorist group Palestine Action at a demonstration in Parliament Square, central London. They were architects Steve Fox and Nick Newman plus former chair of the RIBA Procurement Reform Group Walter Menteth, and well-known academic Jeremy Till.

Speaking as part of the Architects for Gaza collective, former RIBA president Angela Brady criticised the arrests in a statement shared exclusively with the AJ, published yesterday.