Brooklyn Museum Zine Fair selling anti-Israel ‘River to the Sea’ merchandise sparks outrage: ‘Clearly hate speech’

The Brooklyn Museum hosted a fair on Sunday that promoted the sale of “River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” printed materials, which critics have long maintained is an antisemitic slogan calling for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

The same exhibitor at the Zine Fair also peddled another print item for sale that read, “From NYC to Gaza, globalize the intifada” and included an image of an NYPD vehicle on fire.

The museum, which is located on city-owned land, is the beneficiary of public funding and is near the headquarters of the international headquarters of the Hasidic Jewish Lubavitchers.

“It’s clearly hate speech. Everybody knows what ‘River to the Sea’ means. It means kill all the Jews and run Israel into the sea,” said Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a pro-Israel activist and a former longtime trustee on the governing board of the City University of New York.

The event — entitled “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines” — was sponsored by a not-for-profit artists group called Printed Matter, Inc. and included 60 exhibitors.

The presence of anti-Israel print was first reported by algemeiner.com and circulated by pro-Israel groups including United With Israel.

An offended attendee took snaps of the provocative items and posted them on social media.

The Brooklyn Museum immediately sought to distance itself from what it called the “antisemitic” material displayed at its facility, in a note on its website.

The Brooklyn Museum hosted a fair promoting the sale of “River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” printed materials which critics claim is an antisemitic slogan calling for the destruction of Israel.

“Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding materials displayed at Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair. The Museum has worked very hard to create a welcoming and inclusive space for all people, a space of real belonging, and we are sorry that’s not what everyone experienced,” it wrote.

“Any anti-Semitic views expressed did not represent the views and values of the Brooklyn Museum. We want to be clear that we condemn hate, intolerance, or violence of any kind and are appalled by both the growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as well as the divisions that are gripping the world. As a public institution, we are giving care to reviewing our policies while remaining committed to freedom of artistic expression and striving to create spaces for all to see themselves and others with dignity,” the museum added.

The museum, in a promotion of the zine exhibition on its website, warned, “This exhibition contains graphic content and language. Viewer discretion is advised.”

The presence of anti-Israel print was first reported by algemeiner.com and circulated by pro-Israel groups including United With Israel.

CLEMENS BILAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The Brooklyn Museum’s Contemporary Art Committee and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund were major supporters of the zine exhibition, along with additional backing from Elyse and Lawrence B. Benenson, Catie Marron, Kathy Fuld, the Andy Warhol Foundation, among others.

The Brooklyn Museum has come under fire previously for promoting provocative art — notably a painting of the “The Holy Virgin Mary ” splattered with elephant dung on the canvas in 1999, which triggered calls for a boycott from the Catholic League.

Wiesenfeld, for one, wasn’t buying the Brooklyn Museum’s explanation, pointing out that its curators vetted the exhibitors.

“You can’t hold a street fair in Forest Hills and sell guns,” he said.

“This print isn’t risque art. It’s hate speech calling for the extermination of Jews. The Brooklyn Museum has defined deviancy down,” he added.