We’ve had Writers Against Books so it’s not unexpected to see the arrival of Artists Against Art.

Jewish sponsorship of the arts in the UK has been deemed vulgar, as the British appear to have swapped culture for kultur. The message, even from artists, is that it would be better to have no art at all than to have a Jewish-sounding name attached to the room that houses it, for example Gertler. Candida and Zak Gertler are generous art patrons in the UK but after pro-Hamas activists occupied a campus exhibition space adorned with the Gertlers’ good name, that name was removed from the space and from the gallery’s board. The Gertlers’ crime? Donating to the Jewish National Fund.

Last year in London, Anita and Chaim Zabludowicz announced they would, over similar complaints, close the Zabludowicz Collection, an institution they founded in 2007 to increase the visibility of avant-garde work by young artists. The “pro-Palestine” left has volunteered for the young artists who depend on such patronage to learn to code, or something. You know, for The Cause.

Let them eat watermelon emojis. After all, Chaim Zabludowicz simply had to be punished for, as Art Forum notes, having cofounded a company that “aims to reject all characterizations of Israel as an apartheid state, as Amnesty International cast it in a 2022 report”—although Zabludowicz “relinquished his role as chairman of the organization in 2013 and departed as director in 2019.”

All of this was back in the news again this week at the presentation of the British art award the Turner Prize. The coveted award went to Jasleen Kaur, a Scottish artist who wowed audiences by draping a car in a large doily. But the art project itself is beside the point; the true art is protesting people with names like Chaim Zabludowicz and Zak Gertler. From the New York Times:

“As the award dinner began, about 100 activists gathered at Tate Britain’s steps and listened to speeches demanding that the Tate group of museums end any association with Israel, including the high-profile donors Anita and Poju Zabludowicz. In a protest letter published online, the activists said the Zabludowiczes have ‘well-documented economic and ideological links’ to Israel’s government through the Tamares Group, the family’s real estate investment business.

“The letter’s signatories included Kaur and two of the other artists nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, Claudette Johnson and Pio Abad.”

The Glasgow-born Sikh accepted the award wearing a Palestinian-themed scarf because, let’s be honest, we’re all Palestinian during award season.

Meanwhile headlining performances by Coldplay and Katy Perry at London’s upcoming major Christmas event have come under fire, as anti-Israel activists have set their pitchforks on the Jingle Bell Ball. (Is nothing sacred?)

Barclays is a sponsor of the Ball, and, the Telegraph explains, “Activists have mounted a long-running campaign of direct action against Barclays over its financial links to defence-industry firms that they say provide arms to Israel.” According to the organizers of the boycott, “Families in Gaza don’t have the freedom or safety to celebrate Christmas and would love to see an end to this conflict.”

Indeed, Hamas looks forward to the day it can turn the Gaza Strip into Rockefeller Center in December. Sadly, Santa Sinwar will miss this one.

So, no music, no art, no books. Nothing until Islamist death cultists can once again light up a Christmas tree in Khan Younis.

In fact, you’ll notice some similarities between the Islamists of Gaza and the doily artists from Glasgow on the subject of arts and entertainment: They hate it. Same goes for their attitude toward the Jews. And Jewish philanthropy-funded art? The worst, you guys.

All of which leads to a genuine question: Is Britain OK?

I don’t think it is. At a British Museum exhibit on the Phoenicians, a plaque claims that “By the beginning of the first millennium BC the Israelites occupied most of Palestine.” As the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore noted, “Hadrian redesignated Judea as part of Syria-Palaestina around 135AD which is over a thousand years later.” What kind of historical institution displays that level of historical ignorance? This is getting truly embarrassing.

The British Museum was founded as the first public institution of its kind, and today boasts the largest collection of any such museum in the world. It is supposed to be a Mecca of art and culture. I suppose, sadly, that in today’s Europe that’s exactly what it is.