LONDON — Over 100 art workers gathered outside Tate Britain on Tuesday evening, December 3, during the ceremony for the 2024 Turner Prize, to protest against the institution’s ties to groups connected to Israeli military interests. Inside the museum, artist and Turner Prize winner Jasleen Kaur took to the stage and expressed solidarity with the protesters and the Palestinian cause.
“I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life to disappear,” Kaur said, addressing attendees.
“I want the institution to understand: If you want us inside, you need to listen to us outside. Ceasefire now, arms embargo now, free Palestine.”
Outside, activist groups including Artists + Culture Workers, Artistsʼ Union England, Goldsmiths for Palestine, Strike Outset, University for the Arts London (UAL) Students for Justice in Palestine, and Workers for a Free Palestine demanded that Tate cut ties with organizations and companies they say are financially supporting or helping “artwash” Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the Occupied West Bank — including Barclays, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HP), Outset Contemporary Art Fund, the Zabludowicz Art Trust, and Zabludowicz Art Projects.
A statement written by members of Tate’s PCS and Prospect trade union committees was read out during the action, calling on the Tate to accede to protesters’ demands and noting that the museums severed ties with Russian government-affiliated individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The art sector leans progressive, and yet institutions are stuck on this [issue],” said Zarina Muhammad, White Pube art critic, speaking during the protest. “They are the ones with all the money, they are the ones with all the resources, all the power, and yet we have to tell them how to act.”
A selection of artworks from the Gaza Biennale, a roaming exhibition of 60 artists in and from Gaza was projected on Tate Britainʼs exterior walls.
“Art exists to express the pain of this world and the dream of a different one,” another speaker, historian and organizer Barnaby Raine, told the crowd. “We know that creative spirit, that refuses to accept that the violence of this world is all there is, that there can be something better, we know that spirit is carried by the artists of Gaza.”
Significantly outnumbered by the pro-Palestine rally, a small Israel-supporting counter-protest of around 25 people held signs that read “Don’t let Hamas kidnap our culture.” The group dissipated after a while.
Tate has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.
The protest came in the wake of a report released by the United Nations Special Committee last month that found Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza “consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as a weapon of war.” Also in November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. A judge found that Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” in Gaza.
The protest also followed an open letter addressed to Tate last week calling on the institution to cut ties with Outset and Zabludowicz Art and to “take a clear stance against the artwashing of genocide and apartheid.”
The missive has been signed by more than 1,200 artists and cultural workers, including 2024 Turner Prize nominees Pio Abad and Claudette Johnson and winner Jasleen Kaur. Also among the signatories were previous Turner Prize winners Jesse Darling, Tai Shani, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Helen Cammock; Palestinian artist Jumana Manna; and artists Sophia Al Maria, Rene Matić, and Hannah Black.
Artists’ Union England, the Scottish Artists Union, Tate Gallery Prospect Union Branch Committee, and PCS Tate United — the trade union representing Tate Galleries workers — signed as well.
Since 1990, Zabludowicz Collection co-founder Poju Zabludowicz has been the CEO of the private real estate investment company Tamares Group, which the letter says has provided telecommunication infrastructure for Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law. The Zabludowicz Collection declined to comment.
The letter also takes issue with the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, which provides funding support for Tate acquisitions, over Outset’s corporate partnership with the Israeli diamond company Leviev, accused of human rights abuses. Leviev’s founder, Lev Leviev, is accused of profiting from illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Earlier this year, the campaign group Strike Outset drew attention to the fact that the co-founder of the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Candida Gertler, and her husband Zak are close friends of Benjamin Netanyahu and hosted his 70th birthday party at their Tel Aviv home in 2019.
According to the letter, Candida Gertler and Anita and Poju Zabludowicz have been members of Tate’s International Council since at least 2008, and Gertler has been an executive member of the committee for over a decade.
On November 29, four days after the letter was published, Gertler announced her resignation from Outset Contemporary Art Fund and all voluntary positions within United Kingdom arts institutions with immediate effect.
In a statement, Strike Outset said it was “a win for our movement — but our campaign continues,” adding, “This is structural, not personal.” The boycott, the group said, would remain in place “until Outset Contemporary Art Fund closes its Israel chapter, and cuts all ties with the Israeli occupation.”
