Category: Artists’ boycott

Bloomberg Philanthropies, Arts Sponsorship, War Crimes: Briefing

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In Britain, around 450 cultural organisations are currently partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies. The information below should make those organisations think again.

As well as being a major funder of arts projects across the world, Bloomberg Philanthropies funds the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership at Israel’s Tel Aviv University. The Center provides leadership training to municipal officials, including those governing settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, which Israel occupies illegally.

The establishment of settlements in the West Bank is deemed illegal by the UK and other governments and has been found to be in violation of international humanitarian law by the International Court of Justice. It has been identified as a war crime by the UN Human Rights Commissioner and Amnesty International among others, and acts relating to settlement establishment are being investigated as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Bloomberg Philanthropies is directly implicated in these internationally unlawful acts, which are likely to constitute international crimes.[1]

The Bloomberg-Sagol Center, its students, staff and funders are committed to a project of Palestinian dispossession that entails crimes against humanity. As evidenced below, graduates use their position as state officials to champion and uphold policies of occupation, annexation and violence against Palestinians, in the West Bank, in Israel and in Gaza[2]. Teaching staff have close links to Israel’s military intelligence. One of its founders provides funding for an annexationist political party; the other has publicly supported Israel’s military violence against Palestinians and used his platform and financial influence to strengthen the Israeli state, whose system of domination Amnesty International says amounts to the crime of apartheid.

The Bloomberg-Sagol Center perpetuates war crimes through its training of Israeli settler leaders and officials in the Palestinian West Bank. It also empowers officials who incite crimes against humanity.

Armed with this knowledge, British and other international cultural organisations should not partner with Bloomberg Philanthropies for as long as it is implicated in grave violations of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people. 

The evidence

1.   Trainees

Yisrael Ganz (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2022) is leader of the Mateh Benjamin Regional Council, which governs 47 settlements and outposts in the illegally occupied West Bank. He is also leader of the Yesha Council of settlers in the whole of the West Bank. He speaks in plainly annexationist terms, here, in a February 2025 briefing: 

“In order to … assert the Jewish people’s historical and biblical claim, Israel must assert its sovereignty over the West Bank … We have to say, ‘This is our state. We will stay here forever, and this is part of the State of Israel.’ And the only way to do this is to apply Israeli sovereignty over these areas.”[3]

In May 2025, Ganz welcomed the Israeli government’s announcement of 22 new settlements in the West Bank: “This historic decision sends a clear message – we are here not only to stay but to establish the State of Israel.”[4]

Yakov Gutterman (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2023) is Mayor of Modiin Illit, an illegal West Bank settlement. In August 2025, Guterman was one of the West Bank mayors who called on Netanyahu to declare Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian land illegally occupied by Israel. He is particularly active in attempts to persuade Haredi (Orthodox Jewish) communities in the West Bank to vote for annexation[5].

Oshrat Gani Gonen (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2022) leads Drom-Hasharon Regional Council in the Central District of Israel. In 2024 and 2025, as council leader, she visited units of Israel’s occupying forces in the West Bank. In the months leading up to her first visit in February 2024, the Israeli military had killed 362 West Bank Palestinians, including 96 children[6]. For Gonen, this was a “bold and determined operation”[7].

On March 2025, Gonen again visited occupation forces, posting on Facebook:

“We toured the Jenin area this week with the Commander of the Central Command Avi Bluth, the Menashe Brigade, as well as the commanders of spatial defence and the Nishon battalion. The commanders presented to us, the heads of the councils in the area, the activity of the IDF in the refugee camps and Palestinian cities in Samaria. We were impressed by the scope of activity …Thank you to the general, and all the commanders and soldiers who spend nights like this protecting our safety.”[8]

Oshrat Gani Gonen was applauding war crimes. A report by Human Rights Watch in November 2025 described how the Israeli forces she had been to visit “emptied the camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams of virtually all [their] residents … the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank in one operation since the 1967 war.”[9] The soldiers had moved systematically through the camps, storming homes, ransacking properties, interrogating residents, and eventually forcing families out.

Human Rights Watch concluded that: “The Israeli government carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its operations in the West Bank (Operation Iron Wall) starting January 2025.”

“Major-General Bluth should be investigated for individual criminal responsibility, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Oshrat Gonen posted this photograph of herself in Jenin with the unit accused by Human Rights Watch of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel Parosh (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2022) was Mayor of Elad in the Central District of Israel until 2024. In 2015, he visited the Hebron Hills in the West Bank to show solidarity with the settlers. Parosh said:

“It is important to strengthen these settlements, which absorb daily terror, and continue to settle the Land of Israel with a true devotion. Therefore, it was important for me to come and speak to the residents instead. I’m glad that my friend, head of the council, invited me on a tour, and I’m sure we’ll continue to help the settlements as per the tradition.”[10]

In 2015, the year of Parosh’s visit, a UN report found that:

“the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank … was a situation of oppression and humiliation of an occupied people …. [there are] frequent reports of excessive use of force by the occupying power in the West Bank, continued settlement construction, and [mal]treatment of Palestinians, including children in Israeli detention.”[11]

Yair Revivo (Bloomberg-Sagol Class of 2023) has been Mayor of Lod since 2013. Revivo is a supporter of the Garin Torani movement, devoted to the displacement of Palestinians from neighbourhoods they have lived in for decades. He has appointed the head of Lod’s Garin Torani as the city’s CEO and stormed a mosque during Eid Al-Adha prayers.[12] According to Human Rights Watch, the city authorities have provided accommodation to ultra-nationalist groups which violently target the Palestinian population.[13]

Incitement to genocide by Bloomberg-Sagol trainees

The ICJ has ordered Israel to “take all measures to prevent public incitement to genocide” – but  Bloomberg-Sagol trainees are making significant contributions to a discourse that dehumanises Palestinians, legitmates violence against them on a mass scale and establishes conditions for genocide.

David Azoulay, Mayor of Metulla and part of the Bloomberg-Sagol Centre’s Growth programme[14] said that “the whole Gaza strip should be empty just like Auschwitz, flattened, just like Auschwitz is today”[15]. In February 2025, Azoulay’s words were cited by South Africa in its ‘Public dossier of openly available evidence on the State of Israel’s acts of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.’

Israel Gal (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2022), Mayor of Kiryat Ono, said in a podcast, “We don’t have anything to do there (in Gaza) except move the population from side to side, to say to them go from here to there, from there to there, through your sewage and through the winter  and through the hot summer and move them from the side like a herd of cattle.”[16]

Nissan Ben Hamo (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2022), Mayor of Arad, wrote that an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza had “fought bravely against human animals”[17].

Alon Davidi (Bloomberg-Sagol class of 2026) Mayor of Sderot told the TV channel ‘Now 14’: “we [are] surrounded by enemies and we need to teach them a lesson, destroy them. These are animals, monsters.”[18] 
In a 2023 statement to Israel National News, he said, “Every inhabitant of Gaza is ISIS. They must all be hit. … I have no pity for them.  Those who live there, two million people, are Nazis…”[19]
In January 2026, Davidi was welcomed on to the Third Cohort of trainees on the Bloomberg-Sagol Leadership Programme.

2.   Teachers

In Israel’s universities, academic activity is entangled with military and security interests[20]. Tel Aviv University, home to the Bloomberg-Sagol Center, exemplifies this entanglement[21] – as do teachers on its City Leadership Programme.

Nimrod Kozlovski, course lecturer, is a veteran of the Israeli military’s ‘Electronic Warfare Unit’ and according to his biography an ‘expert in cyber warfare and cybersecurity’[22]. He co-founded the company CyTactic with another veteran from the Special Operations Division of Israel’s Military Intelligence.

Moty Cristal, course lecturer, is a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Israeli military, a former negotiator for the Israeli government[23], and according to his X/ profile, a ‘political activist’. He has reposted the anti-Muslim racist Tommy Robinson and other far-right figures on X. Cristal is an advisory member of the Cytactic Board.[24]
 

3.   Funders

The Center was founded and is funded by Yossi Sagol and Michael Bloomberg. Each is explicit that their philanthropic work is tied to the strengthening of the state of Israel which in 2024 was found by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to violate the international prohibition on apartheid[25]. Each has been willing to support policies that breach international law.

Yossi Sagol is Chairman of Sagol Holdings, his family’s global investment company. He is a long-time supporter of annexation. In 2020, he donated 35,000 shekels to the political party of  Gideon Saar, currently Israeli Foreign Minister[26]. Then as now, Saar advocated for the incorporation of Palestinian territory into Israel[27]. In 2022, Saar was a guest at the dinner held to inaugurate the Bloomberg-Sagol Center[28].

Michael Bloomberg (former Mayor of New York and principal funder) has justified  Israel’s military actions against Palestinians, even when these have amounted to war crimes: in 2014 he defended Israel’s shelling of three UN schools in Gaza, which killed 17 children[29]. In the 2020 race for nomination as the Democrats’ Presidential candidate, Bloomberg declared that he would “never impose conditions on our military aid for Israel” .[30]

In April 2024, while Israel was turning West Bank refugee camps into what UNRWA called ‘ghost towns’[31], he announced the $27.8 million Bloomberg Philanthropies Regional Initiative, intended not to resuscitate Palestinian life but to ‘rehabilitate and improve the areas of Israel hit hardest by war’[32].  Moshe Davidovich, mayor in one such area, hailed the programme: “Thanks to Michael Bloomberg and other amazing Zionists, who are opening their hearts and their wallets, I am convinced that we will not only restore the north [of Israel], but we will lead it to a prosperity that it has never seen before”[33].

Conclusion

In July 2025, a UN Report concluded that the private sector and its executives should be held accountable for the corporate machinery that sustains the “displacement and replacement of the Palestinians” from their homes and lands.[34]

In September 2025, Amnesty International published a report that called on public institutions, as well as states, to live up to “their obligations and responsibilities under international law and standards” with regards to Israel’s military occupation, system of apartheid, and genocide against Palestinians.

Amnesty said: “The actions and commitments of everyone – states, public institutions, companies and the public – must match the gravity of the situation amidst a staggering loss of Palestinian lives, [and] the irreparable damage caused to Palestinians”.[35]

Strengthening the infrastructure of illegal settlements is not philanthropy; it is an act that facilitates the commission of international crimes.  Likewise, training officials who incite genocide and implement apartheid is not advancing ‘city leadership’; it is complicity in grave crimes against the Palestinian people.

British institutions should pressure Bloomberg Philanthropies to abide by international law and should not accept its funding until it does. They should instate consistent ethical policies to prevent such complicit funding being accepted in future.

*Photo: Armed settlers stand on a cliff overlooking the Palestinian village below (AFP)

[1] ICRC (accessed 01.2026) International humanitarian law: Settlements https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/settlements

[2] West Bank: Israel Emptying Refugee Camps a Crime Against Humanity https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/11/20/west-bank-israel-emptying-refugee-camps-a-crime-against-humanity

[3] The Jerusalem Post (2025) Israel Ganz: PA seeks Israel’s destruction, West Bank sovereignty a must https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-843607

[4] Reuters (205) Israel announces new West Bank settlements despite sanctions threat https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-announces-new-west-bank-settlements-despite-sanctions-threat-2025-05-29

[5] Israel national News Arutz Sheva (2025) Internal pressure on haredi parties to vote for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/412121

[6] United Nations (2024) Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-112

[7] Gonen (2024) Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/oshratganigonen/posts/pfbid0H4nuZBYx4XmuMn6KPo2Ci1dEXZdeuL64nxyvGdY8ZtJwF9iDVEA6BF43ytXMSqG5l

[8] Gonen (2025) Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/oshratganigonen/posts/pfbid036u48bruSKnwXagKTM442oGPr9UuVCzeLsjkgmyNvJdadEA74UkK6RcTSkC7rFsoAl

[9] Human Rights Watch (2025)  All my dreams have been erased: ​​Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/11/20/all-my-dreams-have-been-erased/israels-forced-displacement-of-palestinians-in-the

[10] Israel National News Arutz Sheva (2015)  https://www.inn.co.il/news/293908

[11] United Nations (2015) Human Rights Council discusses human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian and Arab Territories https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2015/03/human-rights-council-discusses-human-rights-situation-occupied-palestinian

[12] +972 Magazine (2024) A Lyd without the Nakba https://www.972mag.com/lyd-nakba-film/

[13] Human Rights Watch (2021) Abusive Policing in Lod During May Hostilities https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/14/israel-abusive-policing-lod-during-may-hostilities

[14]  Wayback machine web-archive, Bloomberg-Sagol Growth Program page listing Metualla mayor, David Azulay https://web.archive.org/web/20251214170944/https://bloombergsagol.tau.ac.il/en/the-growth-program

[15]Haaretz (2023). ‘Israeli Local Council Head Calls to ‘Flatten Gaza Like Auschwitz Today’ in Radio Interview’ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-18/ty-article/israeli-local-council-head-calls-to-flatten-gaza-like-auschwitz-today-in-radio-interview/0000018c-7bf9-de44-a9be-7ffd05e90000

[16] Youtube (2024) Israel Gal Did Not Surrender to Populism #6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MA-7fGrN8&t=31660s

[17] Ben Hamo (2023) Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1107326583802698&set=a.647774469757914

[18] Now 14, broadcast  https://special.now14.co.il/article/שבים-לה/

[19]  Israel National News Arutz Sheva (2023) https://www.inn.co.il/news/617925

[20] Verso Books (accessed 01.2026) Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3009-towers-of-ivory-and-steel?srsltid=AfmBOorMEbm71v9SRP76GrUDC4yGC7Z5QI3o9Ee4Q3zZiPSjrAibB_5E

[21]Tel Aviv University Annual Report 2024 https://www.freunde-tau.org/wp-content/uploads/TAU-2024-Annual-Report.pdf

[22] The Jerusalem Post (2024) Nimrod Kozlovski: Israeli cyber frontlines: Inside the digital warfare of the war with Hamas https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-781682

[23] Nest Negotiation Strategies website, founder Moty Cristal (accessed 1.2026) https://www.crisis.company/about-moty-cristal

[24] Moty Crystal cited in the Financial TImes (2025) The Other Israel-Iran War https://www.ft.com/content/37f21221-a2c3-47c5-b337-7cd168becaf4

[25] Human Rights Watch (2024) World Court Findings on Israeli Apartheid a Wake-Up Call https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/19/world-court-findings-israeli-apartheid-wake-call

[26] Ynet news (accessed 01.2026) Gideon Saar is counting on 7.2 million shekels from Derech Eretz and the Ya’alon merger https://www.ynet.co.il/economy/article/H1PDGVknD

[27] The Jerusalem Post (2018) Gideon Saar: Oslo is obsolete: Time for a victory mindset https://www.jpost.com/opinion/oslo-is-obsolete-time-for-a-victory-mindset-561808

[28] eJewish Philanthropy (2022) Your Daily Phil. 4th April. https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/your-daily-phil-mike-bloomberg-visits-israel-to-launch-new-mayors-center-another-view-on-huc/

[29] Mondoweiss (2020) Remember when Bloomberg defended shelling a school? https://mondoweiss.net/2020/02/remember-when-bloomberg-defended-shelling-a-school/

[30]Jewish Currents (2020)Time and again, Michael Bloomberg’s unquestioning devotion to Israel has led him to defend immoral and disastrous policies. https://jewishcurrents.org/the-one-issue-that-matters

[31] UNRWA on Facebook (2025)
https://www.facebook.com/unrwa/posts/more-than-ten-months-into-operation-iron-wall-destruction-has-been-relentless-je/1331664908993838/

[32] The Jerusalem Post (2024) Michael Bloomberg launches regional innovation hubs in war-stricken Israeli cities https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-797770

[33] The Jerusalem Post (2024) Bloomberg’s $27.8 million project to boost Israeli cities hit hardest by war is ‘up and running’https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-797770

[34]  UN Report (2025)  From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide https://www.un.org/unispal/document/a-hrc-59-23-from-economy-of-occupation-to-economy-of-genocide-report-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese-palestine-2025/

[35] Amnesty International (2025) Pull The Plug on the Political Economy Enabling Israel’s War Crimes – briefing https://www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/pull-plug-political-economy-enabling-israels-crimes-briefing

How to Take Action for Palestine as a Charity

VIEW/DOWNLOAD: HOW TO TAKE ACTION FOR PALESTINE AS A CHARITYDownload

We are an arts charity – can we take action on Palestine?

Yes! While there are some restrictions around charities’ ability to undertake work deemed ‘political activity’, this does not mean that you can’t undertake work in solidarity with Palestine. 

It’s a myth that registered charities in the UK are prohibited from undertaking work that is political. Despite this, many larger charities use a perceived restriction on political activity as a reason not to take positions on international issues, which in turn influences smaller charities who might feel more at risk. 

The big issue for the Charity Commission is when political activity is in support of a registered political party. This is usually prohibited, though there are some exceptions.

Another key point is that activity that is deemed ‘political’ cannot constitute the entirety of what a charity does. 

‘Political activity’ is defined by the Charity Commission as work that aims to influence or change government policy or that of public bodies.

If you wish to make a commitment to undertake due diligence within your programming and fundraising work with regards to upholding existing international laws and human rights conventions, the Charity Commission allows for such activity. There would only be an issue if the policy were advocating for something that would require a change of law to realise, or if the organisation was making this advocacy a core part of its activities. 

* Charity law differs between Scotland and England and Wales, with distinct regulators and legislation.This document focuses on how the Charity Commission regulates charities in England and Wales.

The action we want to take is political activity – what now?

Charity Commission guidance says: “Charities can take part in political activity that supports their purpose and is in their best interests. There may be situations where carrying out political activity is the best way for trustees to support their charity’s purpose.”

If you feel that what you want to do would be considered political activity by the Charity Commission, then you should consider the following: 

  • How the work relates to your charitable objectives. Charities can take part in political activity that “supports their purpose and is in their best interests”, as long as the charity remains independent and the political activity does not become the primary reason for the charity’s existence.

    For example, if your charitable objects relate to advancing education, understanding, social justice or diversity, or if your work has an international dimension, consider how your Palestine activity relates to those terms, and to the mission and purpose of your organisation, and how you will articulate this.

    You may also want to consider looking over your internal policies, for example on communications and social media, and ensuring they are compatible with the work you wish to do. 

  • Whether you have the support of your board. Trustees have the responsibility of governing charities and ensuring compliance with regulation. The Charity Commission grants a great deal of discretion to trustees in deciding which activities are in the interest of the charity to pursue. But you must be able to show that your trustees have had oversight.

    To help trustees be better equipped, consider offering tailored educational sessions  so your organisation can more confidently support work on Palestine. (See recommendations below for organisations that can deliver this.)

    If you have legal counsel on your board, then it’s important that they facilitate the direction you and the board want to go in. Their role is to advise you of risks and how best to mitigate them.
  • You may want to do a risk assessment, or your board might ask you to. In addition to considering risks to the charity arising from taking action, consider the risks of failing to act. For example, risks of reputational damage over perceived silence on war crimes; staff safeguarding issues deriving from lack of clarity on organisational stance; cultural workers or other external service providers withholding their services from your programme for ethical reasons. Make a note of appropriate mitigating actions. 
  • Anticipate challenge but don’t be overly influenced by it.  You should build in checks to ensure you are not being overly reactive or self-censoring. 

  • How you will document this consultation process. Evidence the process. Have a paper trail showing how decisions have been reached in minuted board meetings, having trustees sign off on risk assessments and on whether any mitigations are needed. 

    Should questions be raised by the Charity Commission because someone has made a complaint about your activity, being able to show that due process has been followed will ensure that a simple inquiry does not turn into a formal investigation. 

We’ve done all this and we’re still being challenged – what do we do?

  • Don’t panic. There are groups that will always attempt to create negative consequences for those platforming Palestinian experiences and perspectives, or expressing solidarity with Palestine. In most cases these pressure groups hope threats and intimidation will dissuade charities from engaging with Palestinian rights. In addition, regulatory bodies are risk averse and have obligations to respond and check for potential breaches. 

    If you are well-prepared and have considered the steps in the section above, you will be in a strong position to act with transparency and confidence as you weather any pushback.

  • Receiving an inquiry from the Charity Commission does not mean a complaint is being upheld. The Charity Commission is obliged to respond to complaints, but this does not mean there has been any breach of guidelines nor that a formal investigation is under way. 
  • Be transparent. This can feel counter intuitive when under pressure, but if you are confident that you have taken action in a way that aligns with your governing documents and charitable objectives, consider explaining what you are doing publicly, on your own website and social media, or even to media outlets where this is appropriate.

    This will be context dependent, but can help to head off inaccurate depictions of your work, and also encourage other organisations and diminish the fear of speaking out. If you believe that criticism of your organisation is baseless and politically motivated, then you should consider saying this.
  • It’s important to consider the risks of silence too. Staying quiet can feel like a safe option, but in the current climate there’s a strong case to be made that doing nothing may be damaging in terms of public perception, and this should be weighed against any potential controversy from speaking out.

  • Seek support from organisations that can help, and talk to other charities that have taken similar action.

Further resources, guidance and support 

Artists for Palestine UK (APUK) coordinates artist-led campaigns focused on the need to end complicity with Israel’s crimes and to press for accountability, particularly in the cultural sector, using guidelines laid out by The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). We promote PPAN’s model policy for arts charities as a simple commitment to respect for international law and universalist values, while offering clarity for staff, artists, audiences, funders and other bodies.

Art Workers for Palestine Scotland has produced excellent resources and guidance for arts charities in Scotland. It calls for arts and cultural spaces across Scotland to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people, including by formally endorsing the guidelines laid out by PACBI. 

British Palestinian Committee comprises British Palestinian citizens with experience in a range of professional fields including policy, advocacy, human rights, law, academia, journalism, arts and culture. Working to ensure Palestinians in Britain enjoy the same rights to freedom of expression and full participation in cultural life as everyone else.

European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) provides free legal advice and assistance to associations, human rights NGOs, groups and individuals advocating for Palestine in mainland Europe and Britain. Monitors and intervenes to end arbitrary restrictions on advocacy for Palestine.

Jewish Artists for Palestine are artists, writers, creatives and culture workers taking action in support of Palestinian liberation. Fighting censorship and anti-Palestinian racism in the UK culture sector.

Makan is a Palestinian-led UK based charity dedicated to interconnected learning. Situating Palestine within the context of other human rights, social justice and global liberation movements, Makan provides tailored workshops that offer a critical understanding of Palestine, its history, and the discourse around it, for all levels.

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has developed detailed, ethically grounded guidelines towards ending complicity with apartheid, genocide, and grave war crimes in the culture sector. A specific guide on how this applies to Israeli film and cinema can be found here.

Queercircle is a charity founded to fill the gaps and advocate for systemic change where other arts, health and education institutions fail or actively perpetuate harm. Queercircle published the 2025 report Let’s Create Change: Artistic Freedom in a Time of Genocide and Rising Fascism exposing a growing climate of censorship, funding pressures and political influence across the UK arts sector, particularly in relation to Palestine and trans rights.

The Royal Shakespeare Company, the fashion label and the IDF

Artists for Palestine UK is dismayed to learn of  the Royal Shakespeare Company’s collaboration with the US fashion label Alice + Olivia on “a licensed apparel collection inspired by Shakespeare’s literary works”. A + O  is a label that declared itself “in support of Israel” while Israel was indiscriminately bombing civilians in Gaza and had already killed hundreds of children. As the death toll rose, the label hosted a fund-raising event for US Friends of the Israeli Defence Force, designated ‘official US partner’ by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli military. The RSC’s relationship with Alice + Olivia was brokered  by  Brandgenuity, a licensing and marketing company which also declares its ‘proud support’ for Israel. From October, Alice and Olivia’s collection is on sale in its stores, crediting the RSC.  

RSC alumni have called on the company to change direction. Today, following Artists for Palestine UK’s findings and the subsequent backlash from artists, The Stage reports that RSC artistic directors say they will convene a special meeting of its ethics committee.

Playwright Caryl Churchill says,  “Come on RSC, you say you support equity and justice. How have you blundered into an involvement with this company that states its support for Israel and the IDF while they commit extraordinary atrocities?”

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Model Ethical Policy for Cultural Institutions 

Resource for Arts Charities PDF VIEW / DOWNLOAD

What are the responsibilities of a British cultural institution, organisation or charity when the gravest of crimes are being committed in plain sight in Gaza? What meaningful steps can a cultural institution take at a time when arts workers, artists and communities feel frustrated and distraught at their collective failure to prevent genocide?

In September Amnesty International published a report that called on public institutions, as well as states, to live up to their obligations and responsibilities under international law and standards with regards to Israel’s genocide, military occupation and system of apartheid against Palestinians. Amnesty adds: 

“The public at large must demand that they [institutions] do so … The actions and commitments of everyone – states, public institutions, companies and the public – must match the gravity of the situation amidst a staggering loss of Palestinian lives, [and] the irreparable damage caused to Palestinians”.

Palestinian civil society has for over two decades consistently called on international cultural workers and cultural organisations, at a bare minimum, to abide by the principle of ‘do no harm’, and crucially, to end the complicity of their own governments and institutions in Israel’s crimes.

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Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo Among 1,300+ Refusing Collaboration with Israeli Film Institutions Complicit in Gaza Genocide

In a historic move, Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, César, Goya, and Peabody Award winners are among more than 1,300 filmmakers who launched a pledge Monday saying they refuse to work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

Actors Olivia Colman, Aimee Lou Wood, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, and Javier Bardem, and writer-directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Asif Kapadia, Ava DuVernay, Emma Seligman, Boots Riley, Adam McKay, and Joshua Oppenheimer say: “In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”

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Victory for staff as Royal Ballet and Opera pulls Israel production

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  • 182 members of The Royal Ballet and Opera said they “reject future performances in Israel”. They stand in solidarity with performer who protested with Palestinian flag.
  • CEO announces decision to cancel 2026 production in Israel.

The Royal Opera has pulled its planned 2026 production run of Tosca at the Israeli National Opera (INO) in Tel Aviv. The website of the INO has now dropped all reference to the Royal Opera House. 

Artists for Palestine UK has learned that Alex Beard, CEO of the Royal Ballet and Opera told staff on 1st August that “we have made the decision that our new production of Tosca will not be going to Israel”.

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Caryl Churchill Pulls Donmar Play Over Barclays’ Role in Arming Israel

  • Caryl Churchill walks away from Donmar Warehouse over its sponsorship with Barclays
  • Stephen Dillane, Samuel West, Bilal Hasna among artists backing Churchill’s decision, urging Donmar to drop the bank
  • Move follows growing pressure on UK arts institutions, including Sadler’s Wells and the Almeida, over ties to complicit funders

Caryl Churchill, one of Britain’s greatest living playwrights, has withdrawn a play from the Donmar Warehouse upon learning that the theatre receives support from Barclays, which invests over £2 billion and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to nine arms companies supplying weapons to Israel.

Speaking about her decision, Caryl Churchill said:

“Theatres used to say they couldn’t manage without tobacco sponsorship, but they do. Now it’s time they stopped helping advertise banks that support what Israel is doing to Palestinians”

Her action has been met with widespread support. Over 300 theatre workers have signed an open letter, published in full below, backing Churchill and urging the Donmar Warehouse to cut ties with the bank.

Actors Alex Lawther, Asif Khan, Maggie Steed, Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson say they share Donmar Warehouse’s mission to foster “a more empathetic society”, and this is precisely why “they can no longer overlook Donmar’s relationship with Barclays, which enables Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians”.

Barclays currently invests over £2 billion and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to nine arms companies whose technology and weapons are used in Israel’s brutal assaults on Palestinians. 

Barclays is also the only UK-headquartered bank that acts as a ‘primary dealer’ of Israel government bonds, directly helping the state raise funds to finance the mounting cost of its military assaults.

The bank’s role in other human rights and environmental harms has also come under fire. Last year, Barclays was named the largest financier of the fossil fuel industry in Europe for the eighth consecutive year.

Directors Richard Eyre, Ian Rickson, Maxwell Stafford-Clark, writer Simon Stephens and theatre-maker Tim Crouch are among those who say that “Donmar Warehouse’s relationship with Barclays directly contradicts its commitment to “keep environmental responsibility at the heart of our work”’.

Churchill’s withdrawal comes amid growing calls across the UK cultural sector for institutions to cut  their ties to organisations complicit in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

  • In May 2025, 435 theatre and arts professionals demanded that the Almeida Theatre end its relationship with Bloomberg Philanthropies. 
  • Since November 2023, Sadler’s Wells has faced growing pressure over its sponsorship from Barclays, whose Chairman Nigel Higgins also chairs Sadler’s Wells Board.
  • In September 2024, over 1,000 artists and Islington residents, including Maxine Peake, Juliet Stevenson, and Jeremy Corbyn MP, signed an open letter demanding Sadler’s Wells sever its ties with the bank.
  • Later that month, dancer Eve Stainton withdrew from the Sadler’s Wells East launch programme, citing “moral objections” to its Barclays sponsorship.

Culture Workers Against Genocide, who co-organised the open letter, said:

“There is an ethical dissonance amongst arts leaders on six-figure salaries partnering with corporations whose actions contradict the values their institutions claim to uphold. Caryl Churchill’s principled stand reflects the growing refusal among artists to stay silent while the arts are used to launder the reputations of corporations complicit in genocide.”

Read the letter in full:

Dear Tim Sheader and Henny Finch,

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Leading lights demand Almeida Theatre cut ties with Bloomberg over war crimes

Jack Reynor, Billy Howle, Zoe Telford and Caryl Churchill are among leading lights of theatre and screen demanding Islington’s Almeida Theatre end its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies over its “links to human rights violations and war crimes” and in particular, its “direct and ongoing support for illegal settlements” in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

In the letter published below, 435 theatre and arts professionals, forty of whom have current or historic links to the theatre – including former associate director Ben Harrison, actors Tamara Lawrance, MyAnna Buring and Hayley Carmichael, composer Jocelyn Pook and writer David Farr – say the issue was raised privately with the theatre months ago, but that the theatre failed to act on the information it was given.

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‘A Licence to Kill’: UK government to face High Court over arms to Israel

Award-winning actor Juliet Stevenson has released the short film, ‘A Licence to Kill’, calling on the UK government to stop providing Israel with the weapons it uses to commit what Amnesty International described last week as a “live streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.

For nearly two years, the government has avoided accountability for its actions. Now, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and leading Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, will present their challenge to government policy at the High Court in a four-day hearing, beginning on 13th May.

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Dozens of ex-Eurovision contestants demand exclusion of Israel from contest

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Britain’s Mae Muller and Bianca Nicholas joined Charlie McGettigan, Salvador Sobral and dozens of former Eurovision contestants in calling on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to ban Israel’s public broadcaster KAN from the popular song contest.

Over 70 previous participants, who include songwriters, lyricists and other creatives from across Europe, accuse KAN of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”.

In a letter published below ahead of the Eurovision finals on May 17, the artists say “by continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes”.

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Turner Prize winner’s inspirational acceptance speech

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Artist Jasleen Kaur’s acceptance speech was delivered at the Turner Prize award ceremony at Tate Britain and broadcast live on BBC News Channel, on 3rd December 2024.

‘To the artists, the poets, the parents,
the students who show me the slow and meticulous
work of organising and world building

the folk who orient their lives towards
freedom in practice

not theory

who advocate for life, not death.

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Tate, Cut Your Ties With Genocidal Israel

As the atrocities mount up, the silence of UK cultural institutions grows more deafening, the double standards ever more glaring.

In March 2022, a fortnight after Russia invaded Ukraine, Tate cut ties with billionaire donors and Tate International Council members, Viktor Vekselberg and Petr Aven. ‘We will not work with or maintain relationships with anyone associated with the Russian government,’ said Tate.

On Palestine, Tate has made no such statement. On the contrary, it has kept up its relationships with donors and organisations associated with the Israeli government. It has remained silent on Israel’s total destruction of Gaza. 

Now, in the lead up to this year’s Turner Prize awards ceremony, more than 60 artists closely associated with Tate (including three out of four of this year’s Turner Prize nominees, two of its judges, and many former prize winners and nominees) have signed an open letter. Supported by a thousand further signatories in the arts, it calls on Tate’s leadership to cut ties with organisations that are deeply complicit with the Israeli state. 

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Genocide, With The United Kingdom’s Blessing

Khalid Abdalla Calls On The Government To End Its Complicity.  

As Israel systematically eradicates the last remnants of healthcare in Gaza, human rights defenders have screened a film on the walls of St Thomas’ Hospital, London.  Actor Khalid Abdalla speaks the words of surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who will never be able to unsee the horror that has been inflicted on Palestinians.

Watch the video here:

The film highlights the testimonies of doctors who have returned from Gaza – who have survived the deliberate targeting of hospitals and health facilities, who are not among the 986 medical workers killed by Israeli forces. Those who remain are witnesses to a situation just as harrowing as that described by Dr Abu-Sittah. 

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Top filmmakers urge New York Film Festival to drop sponsor complicit in Israel’s war crimes

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Mike Leigh, Julia Loktev, and James Schamus among dozens of filmmakers calling on NYFF to cut ties with Bloomberg Philanthropies over links to Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Ahead of the opening of the 62nd New York Film Festival this evening, dozens of this year’s featured filmmakers, including Mike Leigh (Hard Truths), Julia Loktev (My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow), Neo Sora (Happyend), Basel Adra, Hamdam Ballal and Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), Truong Minh Quý (Viet and Nam) and Carson Lund (Eephus) have published an open letter saying that in the face of Israel’s near year-long “brutal onslaught of killing, maiming and displacement” of Palestinians in Gaza, they are “acting collectively towards ending the complicity of our institutions”.

The signatories, who include directors, producers, actors, editors, and other film professionals represented at NYFF, urge the festival to end its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies which they say is
“directly implicated in facilitating settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and denying Palestinians their basic rights.”

The statement, published today in Screen Slate, says that over the past year, the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership program has trained mayors and city officials who represent
“more than 40 West Bank settlements, which were found illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2024.” 

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Top Artists Join Campaign to End UK Arms Sales to Israel

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Award winning British artists – Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla, David Calder, Charlotte Church and Maxine Peake – have released a series of short films, ‘Stop Arming Israel’, calling for “an end to Britain’s role in killing Palestinians”, ahead of the UK elections.

The five hard-hitting films are the result of a collaboration between Artists for Palestine UK, Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. GLAN and Al-Haq have launched a legal action against the UK government to suspend weapons sales to Israel.

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Leading Artists to Keir Starmer: Commit to Stopping Arms Sales to Israel

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Over 100 leading cultural figures in Britain, including Oscar and
BAFTA-winners, have called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to commit to stop
arming Israel if elected Prime Minister on 4 July.

Signatories to the letter include Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed and director
Asif Kapadia, singer Paloma Faith, actors including BAFTA-winning Steve
Coogan, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Paapa Essiedu, Dame Harriet Walter, Joe
Alwyn and Lena Heady.

The call comes amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which
recently saw Israeli strikes on a designated ‘safe area’ in Rafah kill over 50
civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing
arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and
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UK cinemas must refuse Israel-sponsored film festival

Picturehouse and Curzon cinemas have already refused to host the festival. The festival has also been refused at the Cines Girona, Barcelona. We believe there is no moral or ethical justification for a British cultural venue to do ‘business as usual’ with any organisation that is sponsored by the Israeli regime while it intensifies its genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.

To the Trustees of the Phoenix Cinema, Everyman Cinemas Hampstead and Barnet, and JW3

We write as filmmakers, arts workers, London and Brighton residents and audiences who are ardent supporters of independent cinema.

We are disturbed and horrified to find that Seret, the UK-Israeli Film Festival is being held at several cinemas, co-sponsored by the Israeli government.

Amnesty International has designated Israel as a regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. In February 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that accusations of genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza were “plausible”. 

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Boycott called off as Bristol’s Arnolfini apologises for anti-Palestinian censorship

  • Bristol’s iconic Arnolfini gallery apologises “without reservation” for cancelling Palestinian events amid “ongoing devastation and loss of life in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel”

  • Arnolfini: “We believe that freedom of expression and intellectual freedom are vital and must be fully reflected in our policies and practices.” 
  • Bristol Artists for Palestine welcomes the statement, calls off the artist-led boycott of the venue.

The boycott of an iconic British arts venue has ended after it apologised for its anti-Palestinian censorship. The Arnolfini in Bristol said it was “truly sorry” for cancelling film and poetry events curated by Bristol Palestine Film Festival in November last year, and committed to platforming Palestinian voices.  

In response to the cancellations, more than 1,400 artists – including prominent Bristol artists such as Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, writers Alice Oswald, Nikesh Shukla, Shon Faye, Travis Alabanza and Rachel Holmes – had announced they would refuse to work with the venue in protest at “the censorship of Palestinian culture”. The artists demanded the gallery “commit to freedom of expression, without exception for Palestine” and “genuinely engage with Bristol’s arts community to rectify the harm it has caused”.

Today, in a statement, Arnolfini acknowledged the detrimental impact the cancellations had had, and addressed artists, audiences, and Bristol Palestine Film Festival, saying it was “truly sorry”. The organisation also affirmed its commitment to freedom of expression, saying:

“During this overwhelming humanitarian crisis, the voices of the victims need to be heard. (…) We believe that freedom of expression and intellectual freedom are vital and must be fully reflected in our policies and practices. We are sorry that we did not provide a platform for Palestinian voices at such a crucial time.”

The organisation said it will be publishing new policies and reviewing internal governance processes in light of what had happened.

Bristol Artists for Palestine welcomed Arnolfini’s apology. They said the statement provided a resolution to the artists’ demands, and the group announced an end to the artist-led boycott of the venue.

They went on to say:

“We call for all arts institutions, galleries, venues, festivals, universities and funders to uphold the same consistent freedom of expression with no exception for Palestine that Arnolfini has committed to support, and to formally recognise the devastation being wrought by Israel as plausibly amounting to genocide, as the Arnolfini has done.”

Artists for Palestine UK said:

“We welcome Arnolfini’s statement and applaud the hard work of those involved in the mediation process. 

We hope this sends a clear message to other cultural institutions.  Amid a repressive political and media climate, cultural institutions are too often failing in their duty to uphold freedom of expression and to protect against discrimination.  

At a time of unprecedented dehumanisation of Palestinian people, artists and audiences expect cultural spaces to amplify voices that articulate the realities of Palestinian experiences and aspirations, as vital contributions to cultural understanding and to our shared humanity.”

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, said:

“We salute the artists, culture workers and human rights defenders in Bristol and beyond who took strategic, principled and persistent action in boycotting Arnolfini until their goals were met.

All British arts organisations and venues should take note that targeted, grassroots mobilisations are a potential consequence of racist anti-Palestinian censorship.”

Last month HOME Manchester announced it would reinstate the event “Voices of  Resilience” that it had cancelled in response to pressure from a pro-Israel pressure group, after artists withdrew their work en mass from the gallery. 

London’s Barbican Centre has been subject to a mass sit-in, and artists and collectors have withdrawn six art works from the current exhibition, ‘Unravel’, in protest at the cancellation of the London Review of Books lecture series that included a talk by Pankaj Mishra, “The Shoah after Gaza”. 

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Leading artists disengage from British venue that censored Palestine

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Over 1000 artists announce refusal to work with Bristol’s Arnolfini after censorship of Palestinian film and poetry

  • Top Bristol artists among those accusing Arnolfini of censorship
  • Silencing Palestinian culture “inhumane” amid mass killings in Gaza

  • 1100+ artists say they refuse to work with Arnolfini until it “rectifies the harm it has done”

Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, writers Alice Oswald, Nikesh Shukla, Shon Faye, Travis Alabanza and Rachel Holmes are among many of Bristol’s artists who have written a letter accusing the iconic Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts of “censorship of Palestinian culture”. 

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Leading figures urge Imagine Dragons to cancel Baku and Tel Aviv shows

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US pop group Imagine Dragons have been urged to drop Baku and Tel Aviv from their tour dates this month, over serious violations of human rights by the Azerbaijani and Israeli governments respectively.

Now prominent figures are calling on the band to act on their stated commitment to inclusion and human rights by cancelling the concerts.

Here is their letter in full:

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