For all their blatherskite about “the right side of history”, artists don’t have a very good track record on the matter. After all, unquestioning allegiance to communism was — and too often still is — de rigeur for the Arts luvvies, for decades. The Italian Futurists, like Marinetti, were early thought-leaders for fascism. Indeed, Fascism was the “in-thing” for years, for the cultural cutting-edge elite in Britain and America (“You’re the top/You’re Mussolini” sang Cole Porter, in a now-forgotten lyric of his hit song, which ranked Il Duce alongside The Great Houdini). Andy Warhol elevated the bloodthirsty Mao Zedong to the same celebrity status as Marilyn Monroe.
It’s no coincidence, either, that authoritarian regimes co-opt willing artists to push their murderous ideologies: the propaganda posters of the Soviets and the Maoists were nothing if not striking imagery. The Nazis, too, were dab hands at creating powerful iconography. The Nazis also staged art exhibits to showcase their nasty ideology.
Their ideological heirs are at it again, right in New Zealand.
A Tauranga art gallery showcasing Palestinian artists in an exhibition, From the River to the Sea, was told to remove material from its window by its real estate agent, who said there should be “no political stuff in the tenancy”.
By “political stuff”, they mean, “terrorist battle cry” and “incitement to genocide”.
Maori art gallery Kuwao. Space is staging a show called From the River To The Sea, which features calligrapher Belal Khaled, who grew up in Gaza, and Palestinian graphic artist Monna Jabali. The exhibition is set to run until January 6.
The title of the exhibition, From the River to the Sea, is highly controversial, and its significance disputed.
“Disputed”, my arse. Everyone knows what it means: from the Jordan river to the Mediterannean sea — the entirety of the Jewish state. It’s an open call to genocide, the battle-cry of the bloodthirsty savages of Hamas.
When you’re parroting the war cry of people who gut pregnant women, roast babies in ovens, massacre peace festivals, pack rape young girls and parade their mutilated corpses in front of cheering crowds… you better believe you’re on the wrong side of history, pal.
It has been called anti-Semitic by some including the New Zealand Jewish Council. In the UK, the centre-left Labour Party suspended its MP, Andy McDonald, recently after he said the words “between the river and the sea” at a pro-Palestine rally. The UK Labour Party called his comment “deeply offensive”.
Others disagree and say it highlights that Palestinians were removed from their homeland and have not received equal rights in Israel. This is the stance of Green MP Chloe Swarbrick who used it this month at a rally.
No, it’s the pathetic excuse of an anti-Semitic, far-left extremist who got caught out.
“Decolonisation is our baseline, and everything we do within the space, including use of Te Reo Maori or supporting our queer community, is politically motivated. Therefore, we cannot imagine a space that contains no political material. We welcome all people,” owner Sian Evans told Stuff.
How about Jews?
But the dead giveaway is “decolonisation”: as Hamas’ bloodthirsty apparatchiks have made absolutely clear, the October 7 massacre was “decolonisation” in action.
An Auckland gallery is a “safe space” for violent genocide. Let that sink in.
“There was nothing abusive or hateful or anything that I could even think would be offensive at all.”
Stuff
Apart from, y’know, the Hamas rallying-cry to genocide. But then, it’s all too likely that anti-Semitic creeps don’t find calls to genocide the Jewish state “offensive at all”.
