As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, hundreds of people gathered inside the Museum of Modern Art and outside of the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday for protests.
Images and videos posted on Instagram show several banners unfurled inside MoMA’s atrium. The banners said “Free Palestine, From the River to the Sea”, “Ceasefire Now”, “Cultural Workers Stand with Gaza” and accusing members of the institution’s board of trustees of funding “genocide, apartheid” and “settler colonialism”.
Around 3:30 p.m., protestors at MoMA handed out over 1,000 custom-printed mock museum guides calling out the museum’s board of trustees—Leon Black, Larry Fink, Paula Crown, Marie-Josée Kravis, and Ronald S. Lauder. The printed statement said “While MoMA purports ideologies of ‘change’ and ‘creativity,’ the Board of Trustees directly fund Zionist occupation via arms manufacturing, lobbying, and corporate investment. At the same time, the museum derives its legitimacy from artists and cultural workers, including those actively engaged in anti-colonial struggle”.