Collins said the show’s title clearly states that his art is ‘not against Jews’ [GETTY]
A UK artist has condemned the cancellation of his art show in Margate, southern England, after a pro-Israel group accused the installation of being “antisemitic“.
Matthew Collings’ “Drawings Against Genocide” art show, which depicts Israeli violence against Palestinians, was abruptly cancelled following calls by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which claimed the pieces were antisemitic.
The exhibit consisted of 130 drawings featuring the Israeli military, political officials and business leaders.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Collins said the show’s title clearly states that “they’re not against Jews”.
“They’re against genocide. The genocide wasn’t committed by Jews. It’s committed by Zionists. It’s committed by Israel, which is a state that would not exist were it not for Zionism,” he told the publication.
Collins said his drawings depict “demons and monsters” as “artistic metaphors for Zionism, brutality, and violence”.
UKFLI welcomed the cancellation, saying that freedom of expression “does not extend to the promotion of material that relies on antisemitic tropes, dehumanising imagery, and conspiracy narratives about Jews”.
The pro-Israel group claimed in a March letter that “many of the images are likely to breach” public order laws, warning that a person guilty of an offence could be fined.
The group has previously lobbied for Palestinian children’s drawings to be removed from a hospital in London, as well as for Palestine-related events in Britain to be cancelled.
Following the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war in 2023, Collins began producing drawings focused on the Gaza war.
He also took to Instagram to share his dismay, critiquing “antisemitism” being conflated with pro-Palestine activism, using examples of his drawings being removed, and a billboard on Palestine House in Camden saying “Stop the genocide” being taken down.
The artist also found it “puzzling” that UKLFI had not sent letters to the Times and the Telegraph over their drawings of Zack Polanski, where the publications were accused of publishing antisemitic caricatures of the Green Party leader
