Israeli artists paint the town despite attempted boycott

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in South Africa’s latest attempt to stifle freedom of expression has failed.

The movement tried to stop Israeli artists from taking part in a local street festival in Cape Town, but the artists went ahead with painting murals under the theme “humanity”. Their work was part of the International Public Art Festival (IPAF) 2022 from 18 to 28 February.

The event is hosted by urban art organisation Baz-Art, and has been running for six years, with 133 murals across the city.

“This year, we’re going even bigger by adding multistorey massive public murals to the skyline of the Cape Town CBD, and continuing long-standing community art projects in the historical suburb of Salt River,” said the organisers, who are based in Cape Town.

“This will showcase the best talent in the street-art scene, locally and internationally – the epitome of creative expression for all Capetonians and visitors to enjoy. The murals will draw inspiration from the theme ‘humanity’ to educate and encourage debate while promoting the arts and our future talent.”

But the SA BDS Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) felt that it was an affront to human rights. They demanded that the Israeli artists group, Broken Fingaz, leave the festival. They also demanded that Israeli embassy sponsorship of the group’s flights be dropped.

Because Broken Fingaz and Baz-Art wanted to prioritise the festival above all else, they chose to drop funding from the Israeli embassy. However, Baz-Art insisted on the Israeli artists’ right to be there, and even funded their trip out of its own pocket.

Dennis Molewa of Baz-Art told the SA Jewish Report that “after we dropped the embassy as a sponsor, the PSC hosted a protest in Canterbury Street demanding that we send the Israeli artists home. I politely and respectfully declined, as stated in the official press statement.

“I even attended the protest in person to explain why we declined their request to send the artists home. Some listened to me and understood. Others shouted at me, didn’t listen, and didn’t understand. And that’s okay. I listened, and went home. Nobody got hurt, and I had an opportunity to present my point.

“We firmly believe in artists’ freedom of expression as stated by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s) bill of artist rights,” he says. “What matters to us is the artist and their ability to create art that’s free from political pressure. Hence, we refused to send them home and have covered their costs out of our own pockets. At the same time, we respect the communities we paint in and their lived reality in a socio-economically divided post-apartheid South Africa. We consulted intensely with community organisations in Cape Town and evaluated every piece of feedback carefully before making the decision to discontinue sponsorship with the embassy.”

Baz-Art is a non-political organisation, he says. “However, we value human rights, artistic expression, and freedom of expression. Freedom of expression clearly wasn’t hindered as the artists decided to stay in South Africa and paint a piece that speaks about the shared experience in Israel and South Africa. So we are quite happy with the outcome and so are the artists as they got to paint.”

He says they have continued to engage in constructive dialogue with communities about the decision to allow Broken Fingaz to stay and paint.

“The Israeli artist collective is receiving much support in spite of the fact that they have an Israeli passport. If you meet them and have a look at their art, you will notice that their passport is one of the most irrelevant things about them. We supported them in their endeavour to paint in South Africa, and they managed to paint a wonderful piece in the centre of Cape Town, which we are proud of. The fact that not everybody is happy about the wall is okay. It’s okay to have controversial art pieces now and then. Isn’t that part of art?”

Asked if the boycotters aren’t “shooting themselves in the foot” by boycotting artists that actually question Israel, Molewa says, “The question is probably more about how to engage with artists who are part of the peace process in Israel. As this is an incredibly complex process, everybody is learning here. I attended the Palestinian protest in order to represent Baz-Art and defend our artists. I went because I wanted to tell the protesters why we wanted them to stay.

“Many I talked to understood our decision to allow Broken Fingaz to stay in Cape Town to paint. Others didn’t, and I agreed to disagree with them. We live in times of immense political polarisation, and I remember that only a few years ago, it was okay to disagree while sitting at one table. Nowadays people tend to leave uncomfortable debates. I reject cancel culture, and believe that we should respect all humans regardless of whether we agree or disagree with them. We should never stop talking to each other.”

A member of Broken Fingaz, who calls himself Unga, says he was “surprised” that there was a call for a boycott, “as we are used to painting all over the world”. Their goal was to paint at the festival, and giving up funding from the Israeli embassy was a small compromise. “They were just sponsoring flights, but they had zero say about the art we were doing. For us, it was just a technical thing. We don’t represent the state of Israel. We are Israelis, and we don’t hide it. If anything, we’re happy to show a side of Israel that doesn’t support the occupation [of the West Bank] and is anti-war.

“Sadly, at the moment it doesn’t feel like change will come from the Israeli government, and we don’t think boycotting artists furthers the aim of ending the occupation. It usually leads to the right-wing reinforcing the rhetoric that ‘the world is against us’.

“It was disappointing that the people who were so against our mural in Cape Town didn’t look at our art, or they would have seen in one minute what we stand for. The PSC statement calling for the artists to be boycotted is ignorant, to say the least. They aren’t from our region but they say they understand the situation. We have lived in Israel all of our lives, through wars, and still don’t claim to understand the complexity of this crazy region. So to present it in this black and white way doesn’t seem very genuine.”

He says the image they painted “explores the pervasive power of political narratives that are reinforced by governments, and the moments in history when the public – through actions like protest – forced cracks in this dominant story. Although it at first appears semi-abstract, the mural is based on archival documentary images from South Africa and Israel.”

On Facebook, one man wrote, “It’s rather simplistic to infer that public artists from any country support their government’s actions and ideologies. They are, by nature, free thinkers, critical of authority/power structures and non-conformists. That’s part of the public-art culture. I certainly wouldn’t think that if IPAF supported a Russian crew, for example, that they would be supportive of Putin and his Ukrainian incursion. Congratulations Baz-Art for being open-minded about this issue, and not blindly dogmatic.”