Displayed Art at Brooklyn Museum Calls to “Globalize Intifada”

By COLlive reporter

The Brooklyn Museum has come under fire this week, after an event showcasing authors, publishers, and libraries at the Museum on Sunday included antisemitic art and literature.

According to the Brooklyn Museum’s website, Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair convened more than sixty invited exhibitors, with an emphasis on self-publishing artists and collectives, archives and libraries, and rare and out-of-print dealers. It was free and open to the public.

Instagram user Meryl Fontek wrote that she attended Printed Matter’s Zine Fair and saw a table with art calling to “globalize the intifada” among other literature, which included “from the river to the sea” and other antisemitic statements.

Fontek included a photo of the booth at the fair, and wrote that when she took the photo, she was told, “You don’t belong here,” by “a woman calling for Jewish genocide hiding behind an iPad and a mask.”

“If I don’t belong in New York and I don’t belong in Israel, where do I belong?” Fontek wrote. “A call to “globalize the intifada” is hate speech not art. Under the guise of resistance it legitimizes killing Jews and the Brooklyn Museum gave this a platform today.”

On the Brooklyn Museum website page about the Zine Fair, they have included a statement about Sunday’s event.

“Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding materials displayed at Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair. The Museum has worked very hard to create a welcoming and inclusive space for all people, a space of real belonging, and we are sorry that’s not what everyone experienced. Any anti-Semitic views expressed did not represent the views and values of the Brooklyn Museum. We want to be clear that we condemn hate, intolerance, or violence of any kind and are appalled by both the growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as well as the divisions that are gripping the world. As a public institution, we are giving care to reviewing our policies while remaining committed to freedom of artistic expression and striving to create spaces for all to see themselves and others with dignity.

“Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair is an event organized and hosted by Printed Matter, Inc. The Brooklyn Museum does not endorse or approve the content of any zines included as part of Printed Matter’s event,” they wrote.

A notice shared on social media called on the public to voice their concern about the antisemitic literature being included at an event organized by Printed Matter at the Brooklyn Museum.

Click the link below and add the picture to the email, then sign your name and hit send.
Total time required – 1-2 minutes:
https://tinyurl.com/Printed-Matter
Or please do it manually by reaching out to:
Krista Manrique, Interim Director
([email protected]) and Sonel Breslav, Director of Fairs & Editions ([email protected])

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Meryl Fontek (@merylfontek)