Pro-Palestine Protests Erupt at MoMA and Brooklyn Museum
As Israeli forces were said to be preparing a major new offensive into the Gaza city of Rafah Saturday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters took their concerns about the war to New York cultural institutions with simultaneous protests at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Brooklyn Museum Saturday afternoon.
MoMA. Courtesy MoMA. Photograph: Brett Beyer.
Rafah is Gaza's southernmost city, home to 2.2 million people, including many who sought safety there after fleeing their homes in the north. Israel has called it the last bastion of Hamas and signalled an offensive into the city is imminent, despite U.S. President Biden saying Monday that Israeli operations in Rafah 'should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety' of civilians.
At MoMA, protesters carried signs, hung banners, and distributed leaflets, forcing the closure of some galleries at the midtown Manhattan institution for a time. Meanwhile, ten people were reportedly arrested on a range of charges following a similar action at Brooklyn Museum.
MoMA protestors accused the institution's Board of Trustees of involvement in corporate investments that support Israel's incursion into Gaza. Social media posts showed a banner hanging from a second-floor walkway at MoMA reading: 'MoMA Trustees Fund Genocide, Apartheid, and Settler Colonialism'. Others read, 'Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea', 'Ceasefire Now', and 'Cultural Workers Stand with Gaza'.
Protestors distributed hundreds of fake museum guides that said: 'While MoMA purports ideologies of "change" and "creativity", the Board of Trustees directly fund Zionist occupation via arms manufacturing, lobbying, and corporate investment.'
In actions like those seen in art communities around the world, the protests came after more than 100 cultural workers and others signed an open letter condemning the institutions for the 'disgraceful silence of our institutions as Israel commits genocide in Gaza'.
New York City has become an epicentre of protests on both sides of the conflict since the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel by Hamas and the ferocious Israeli military response in Gaza. There have been demonstrations at the United Nations, Columbia University and other college campuses, New York City Public Library, the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Terminal, in parks, on streets and bridges, and in tunnels.
Protests at New York museums are not confined to Middle East issues. In mid-November, protestors from an international organisation called Extinction Rebellion staged simultaneous protests at the Guggenheim and American Museum of Natural History alleging that museums and other cultural institutions are complicit in an impending climate change doom. —[O]
