At least 20 demonstrators have been arrested this afternoon, May 31, throughout an enormous protest in opposition to Israel’s conflict on Gaza on the Brooklyn Museum.
Over 500 activists overtook the New York museum, staging a protest in its foyer, waving Palestine flags above its glass pavilion, and unfurling a big banner from its rooftop that learn “Free Palestine, Divest From Genocide.”
Some protesters additionally tagged artist Deborah Kass’s yellow “OY/YO” (2015) sculpture exterior the museum’s entrance with slogans together with “Gaza Will Be Free,” “40,000 people dead,” and “Ur Museum Kills Kids in Palestine.”
The protesters handed out copies of a brochure calling on the Brooklyn Museum to publicly acknowledge Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide and divest from corporations and donors with ties to the Israeli army.
“The Museum relies heavily on subsidies from the City of New York, along with the granting of the land it sits on, and so its financial doings should be publicly accountable,” Cultural Front, an autonomous collective of artists and cultural employees who beforehand held a creative intervention at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, instructed Hyperallergic in an announcement.
In an electronic mail to Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Museum claimed that harm was brought about to “existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza” and that “members of our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.”
“Out of a concern for the building, our collections, and our staff, the decision was made to close the building an hour early and asked the public to vacate peacefully,” the spokesperson added.
The rally started at round 4:30pm, when over 100 demonstrators took over the Brooklyn Museum’s foyer with assorted banners and Palestine flags. Hundreds extra joined after marching from the Barclays Center sports activities enviornment, a few 20-minute stroll from the museum.
“Brooklyn Museum you can’t hide, divest from genocide,” they chanted.
Around 5:15pm, the museum closed its doorways and instructed the protesters to evacuate the constructing instantly. A chaotic scene ensued with NYPD officers in riot gear storming the foyer to sort out and arrest protesters, amongst them a number one organizer with the Palestinian youth motion Within Our Lifetime (WOL), whereas pushing the remainder towards the again exit.
Nevertheless, dozens of protests continued their chants exterior the museum till round 7pm, lastly transferring their rally away from the museum.
Today’s motion follows a number of protests for Gaza which have taken place on the Brooklyn Museum since final October, as activists and its own staff have continued to name out the establishment’s silence on Israel’s escalating hostilities in opposition to Palestinians and its aggressive therapy of pro-Palestine demonstrators.
