ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

A group of 25 artists have ended their connections with the London contemporary art museum, the Zabludowicz Collection, over the museum's alleged connection to Israel and the Israeli military, ArtForum Magazine has reported.

The artists, who have all either exhibited at or collaborated with the Zabludowicz Collection in the past, sent letters to the museum and its affiliates, detailing their plan to "de-author" all the "conceptual content" that they had created for the museum.

This included any screenings, talks, initiatives, and commissions, as well as the artwork itself.

The letters, all signed individually, were authored by the Boycott/Divest Zabludowicz (BDZ) movement, which was established in 2014 and calls for a boycott of the Zabludowicz Art Trust, of which the collection is a subsidiary.
The boycott calls for an end to the trust's "continued complicity in the ongoing colonization and occupation of Palestine, and of apartheid policies against Palestinians," according to ArtForum. 

According to the BDZ mission statement, the boycott against the collection is because "The Zabludowicz Art Trust is directly connected to Tamares, a holding company initially established with money historically made from arms dealing and contracts with the Israeli Air Force, but which still currently has ties to property in illegally occupied Ma’ale Adumim, BICOM (Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre) and significant financial contributions to Conservative Friends of Israel, and is thus complicit in and reproduces the Israeli-state-led apartheid, which normalises the oppression of Palestinians."

Most recently, in May, BDZ denounced the then escalation between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip, and the violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Sheikh Jarrah residents in Jerusalem.

However, despite BDZ's statement calling the art trust "complicit in...the oppression of Palestinians," the co-founders of the art trust, Anita and Chaim Zabludowicz, issued their own separate statement condemning the violence between Hamas and Israel, and stressing their support of a two-state solution.

According to ArtForum, BDZ has said that "the call to divest is directed at the institution and its complicit activity, but not the individual,” confirming that their stance follows the rules of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.