The absurdist news about a would-be prisoner-of-antisemitic conscience, whose daring act of support for the Palestinians consists in refusing to sell her artwork to Zionists, can be found here: “Arts School in London Urged to Investigate Student Refusing to Sell Artwork to Zionists,” by Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, May 29, 2024:
The Slade School of Fine Art in London has come under fire after one of its students said she refuses to sell her artwork to Zionists.
On May 20, Betty Ogún posted on her Instagram Story: “I will never, ever support genocide. I will not sell to Zionist collectors and I will continue to do what I can to support human rights, peace and equal rights for all. Free Palestine.”…
Nothing says “I support human rights, peace, and equal rights for all” so well as standing tall for Hamas, the terror group which crushes the human rights of the Palestinians it rules over in Gaza, wages endless war against Israel, and refuses to treat non-Muslims as equal to Muslims. As for “genocide” that brave Betty Ogún will ”never, ever support,” that’s nice to know, but does she realize that the IDF, too, “will never, ever support genocide,” as is shown by its conduct of the war in Gaza? In order to minimize civilian casualties, the IDF has made a colossal effort, by sending 16 million messages, making 15 million prerecorded calls and 100,000 personal phone calls, and dropping 9 million leaflets, to warn civilians in Gaza away from places and buildings that are about to be targeted. There is no “genocide” by the IDF in Gaza. The only attempt at “genocide” in the vicinity of Israel/Palestine has been that by the terror group Hamas, when 3,000 of its operatives smashed into Israel on October 7, burning children alive, mass-raping, torturing, mutilating, and murdering girls, slicing off the breasts of women and playing catch with them, cutting off the genitalia of men and in some cases, gouging out their eyes, before finally killing them. That is “genocide.”
Ogún exhibited her artwork at Slade’s 2024 BA/BFA degree show, which took place from May 17-23. She included a piece titled “River to Sea / Flower of Liberation,” which featured a textile in the shape of a flower that was designed in the colors of the pan-African and pan-Arab flags, Ogún explained in an Instagram post. The textile flower was green, red, black and white, and was displayed on a chair during the degree show.
The statement made by Ogún’s artwork shown at the degree show was none too subtle. One piece was titled “River to Sea,” which the world’s anti-Zionists have made famous as a sinister chant — “From the river to the sea/Palestine shall be free.” That is a call for the lone Jewish state to be destroyed and replaced by a 23rd Arab state. Betty Ogún is all for it. In her view, there is no place for Zionists anywhere. Jews are not entitled to a state of their own; they must leave “Palestine” and “return to the countries in Europe they came from.”
Aside from her titling one work “River to Sea,” there is also her choice of colors for her art work — red, black, green, and white — that is, the colors of the Palestinian flag, plus white. I’m only surprised she didn’t make the “bloody hand” symbol — alluding to the murders in Ramallah in 2000 of two Israelis, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Abrahami — part of her oeuvre.
“Blooming flowers are often a symbol of hope, growth, regeneration and resilience,” Ogún said, elaborating on her intention behind the creation. “These colors signify my transparent solidarity as an artist with the rights of those experiencing oppression and genocide in countries that are represented by these colors, i.e. Palestine, Sudan. The flower, in its composition, will remind you of a watermelon, which is the Palestinian symbol of resilience. When you come to my show and sit in the chair with this textile piece, you are facing Palestine.”…
So much rodomontade and gibble-gabble by this ridiculous art student. That pretentious business about “hope, growth, regeneration and resilience.” Those colors that “signify my transparent solidarity as an artist with the rights of those experiencing oppression and genocide.” She fails to recognize that there is no “genocide” in “Israel/Palestine” save for that attempted by the terror group Hamas on October 7, and that greatest genocide in the world today is taking place in Sudan, with Arabs mass-murdering black Africans. That’s not something she cares to recognize.
UKFLI told The Algemeiner on Wednesday that four of Ogún’s photographs and paintings are being sold on the website of Saatchi Art, which describes itself as “the world’s leading online art gallery.” The gallery sells many artworks by Israeli artists, and is named after and owned by famed art collector Charles Saatchi, who was born in 1943 to a Jewish family in Iraq.
Is there not something hypocritical here? Ms. Ogún is selling four of her works on the website of Saatchi Art, owned by the art collector AND ZIONIST Charles Saatchi?
But a larger question remains: why are Jewish groups determined to force Ms. Ogún to allow Zionists to buy her art work? Who cares? What Zionist in his right mind would want to support the anti-Zionist and antisemitic Ms. Ogún? Don’t make a fuss over this. Forget, for the nonce, trying to enforce Section 29 of the UK’s Equalities Act 2010, which prohibits a person supplying goods to the public or a section of the public from discriminating against persons with protected characteristics by not supplying them. That’s fine to invoke if you are dealing with a case of a bakery or a department store refusing to sell to Jews (a/k/a Zionists). But art works are a different matter. Artists like the young, brain-addled and impecunious Ms. Ogún are desperate to sell.
Welcome her statement. And offer another one, only half-humorously, by way of retort: “We advise all those who support Israel not to buy any artwork offered by Betty Ogún. She boycotts Zionists and Zionists must boycott her.” You know which side will suffer.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/artist-at-slade-school-in-london-wont-sell-her-work-to-zionists
