A print on sale read, “From NYC to Gaza, globalize the intifada,” and had an image of a New York City Police Department car on fire.
By Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner
The Brooklyn Museum in New York hosted a fair on Sunday where one exhibitor was seen selling items that promoted the destruction of Israel and a global intifada “from NYC to Gaza.”
The Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair showcased over the weekend more than 60 exhibitors “with an emphasis on self-publishing artists and collectives, archives and libraries, and rare and out-of-print dealers,” according to a description of the free event provided by the museum. A zine is a small circulation, self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images.
The fair was organized and hosted by Printed Matter, Inc, a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers. Its founding members included artists of Jewish descent such as Pat Steir, Sol Lewitt, and Ingrid Sisch.
As part of the fair, one exhibitor sold prints that featured the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a slogan widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and to replace it with “Palestine.” Another print on sale read, “From NYC to Gaza, globalize the intifada,” and had an image of a New York City Police Department car on fire. A separate print in favor of “Free Palestine” read, “Do not be complacent. Do not speak for propaganda. Speak up.”
A visitor who attended the fair took a photo of the controversial items and shared them on social media.
“Calling for an intifada is not art it’s hate speech and a call to kill Jews [sic],” the attendee wrote in the photo’s caption. “I took this photo and was told, ‘You don’t belong here,’ by the woman calling for Jewish death and hiding behind an iPad. Is this free speech? Is calling for Jewish genocide artistic expression?”
The Brooklyn Museum said on its website that it “does not endorse or approve the content of any zines” included in the event. It further told Ynet: “The Brooklyn Museum was not involved in selecting the content on view. We do not condone the statements made on these zines, and they do not express the views of the museum.”