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Two members of the British civil resistance group Youth Demand have been arrested after they pasted a photo of a mother and child from Gaza over Pablo Picasso’s painting Motherhood at the National Gallery on 9 October to protest arms sales to Israel.
The activists who put the photo on the protective glass of Picasso’s 1901 work and dumped red paint on the floor were National Health Services worker Jai Halai, 23, and Politics and International Relations student Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 21. The photo they used was taken by Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah at Al-Shifa Hospital in March.
Museum security detained the activists and took the photo off. The museum confirmed that there was no damage to the artwork.
“Our government is arming Israel to carry out a genocide against Palestinians and killing without restrain in Lebanon. It cannot be all carrots and no sticks: a two-way arms embargo is the least Britain can do to stop displacement, destruction and death,” a Youth Demand spokesperson said.
“I’m taking action with Youth Demand because at this point it’s been over one year of seeing my colleagues in the healthcare field decimated. Decimated by bombs, by bullets and by having to operate, with no medical equipment, on starved children,” Halai said in a recorded video explaining the rationale of the protest.
“We need a two-way arms embargo on Israel now; 87% of the British public want this and never before have they been more disillusioned with our government and political class who do not represent us,” Halai continued. “We need a revolution in our democracy.”
Rosenfeld said: “I am taking action because as a Jew, I feel like it’s my duty to call out the genocide being committed in Gaza. I want the world to know this isn’t in the Jewish name and I want to see a free Palestine. When Keir Starmer says Britain stands with Israel he’s wrong. We know very well that this is a genocide, not ‘self defence’ and we, as the people of Britain, say enough is enough.”
A spokesman for the National Gallery said: “At approximately 11.50am this morning, two people entered Room 43 of the National Gallery. One was apprehended after initially attempting to attach what appeared to be a piece of paper to an artwork. Some paint was thrown on the floor.
“Police attended and arrested the pair. The room reopened to the public at 2.30pm. There has been no damage to any paintings.”
The incident comes weeks after two Just Stop Oil activists were sentenced for pouring soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in 2022.
The activists had come close to “destroying” the masterpiece and caused up to £10,000 worth of damage to the gold-coloured frame worth £28,000.
Hours after the sentencing, three other Just Stop Oil activists threw soup over the same painting as well as another nearby.
The protest by Youth Demand comes as the death toll from Israel’s assault on Gaza crossed 42,000, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry, and the Israeli military continues to relentlessly bomb Lebanon and Syria, killing hundreds of civilians.
In September, the UK government suspended around 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel citing a “clear risk” they could be used to breach international humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.
Prime minister Keir Starmer ruled out a total ban on arms sales to Israel, however, claiming a complete ban would cover arms being used for defensive purposes.