Thanet Council in Kent, England, was forced to apologize and remove a listing for an art exhibition from its local tourism website after it emerged that the exhibition included extreme antisemitic imagery, including a painting depicting Jews eating babies.
The exhibition, presented under the title “Paintings Against Genocide" at the Joseph Wales Studios in the town of Margate, triggered a wave of complaints over a series of works that, according to visitors, rely on extreme antisemitic stereotypes.
One of the central paintings in the exhibition depicts an auction connected to Sotheby’s, the auction house owned by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi.
In the painting, figures are shown devouring babies with blood dripping from their mouths. Additional works in the exhibition depict an Israeli soldier standing over blood and human remains, and figures holding a Star of David flag soaked in blood.
Another item in the exhibition portrays Lisa Nandy, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from the Labour Party, alongside cash and an Israeli flag, with speech bubbles containing the phrases “I am a Zionist" and “I receive payment from Israel."
Alex Hearn, from the Labour Party Against Antisemitism group, said the images portray the Jewish people as “blood-soaked demons, baby-eaters." Some attendees at the exhibition’s opening wore shirts reading “Globalize the Intifada."
The artist, Matthew Collings, strongly rejected the criticism. He argued that “nothing in the painting says ‘Jews’ or claims that Jews eat babies," explaining that the work criticizes Zionism rather than Jews. “The message is that Zionism is a brutal ideology," he said.
The controversy escalated after Jewish writer Zoe Strimpel, a columnist for the British Telegraph, claimed she was expelled from the gallery during a confrontation with the artist. Strimpel described being shouted at when she commented on the imagery. “The moment I began to say I was shocked by what I saw because these were Nazi images, the artist started shouting at me," she wrote.
According to her, the artist accused her of “repeating hasbara talking points" and “defending genocide." The crowd, she said, began booing and moved toward her in an attempt to force her out.
Collings later responded online, dismissing the reaction as “Zionist nonsense." He wrote that, in his view, “this Zionist nonsense raises all these false accusations so that antisemitism can be confused with anti-Zionism."
The incident was reported to the police, but officers concluded that no law had been broken. A Kent Police spokesperson said: “Officers carried out inquiries and no criminal offenses were identified."
Thanet District Council removed the exhibition listing from its tourism website and issued an apology. In a statement, it said: “Following an approach made to the council regarding the nature of the content, the link to this exhibition has been removed. The council is not affiliated with the gallery or this exhibition and sincerely apologizes for any distress or offense caused."