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Opinion

By Deborah Stone

November 23, 2025 — 2.00am

When Creative Australia reversed its selection of artist Khaled Sabsabi to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the art world cried foul. In response, 4416 people signed an open letter protesting the decision as “artistic censorship”.

Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino have since been reinstated, with an apology, following an independent review. But there is a confronting double standard in the #ReinstateKhaled campaign. Some of the arts figures who touted “artistic freedom” for Sabsabi are the same people who called for a boycott of Israeli artist Ruth Patir at last year’s Venice Biennale.

Khaled Sabsabi, who has said: “I’m an artist, not a politician.”Credit: Janie Barrett

The Jewish Independent has conducted a data analysis of the letter in support of Sabsabi, comparing it to an open letter signed by 24,076 individuals calling for the deplatforming of the Israeli Pavilion at the 2024 Biennale and the cancellation of Israel’s Biennale artist Ruth Patir.

At least211 names appear on both lists. (Some names may have been omitted due to differences in the formats of signatures on the two lists). Synthesising the two lists reveals a double standard in the attitudes of the arts community.

Apparently artistic freedom is essential for a Lebanese Australian of Palestinian background commenting on war in the Middle East, but not for an Israeli whose exhibition was about fertility and motherhood. Sabsabi himself was among those who called for the boycott of Patir, so whatever else he may believe, it’s clear he doesn’t object to blocking other artists on political grounds – at least not when those artists are Israeli.

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Some of Australia’s most highly awarded artists signed both the “boycott Israeli art” and more recent “don’t censor Sabsabi’s art” open letter. They include Hoda Afshar, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and Agatha Gothe-Snape. Arts academics, curators and arts managers are also on both lists. All five of the artists shortlisted for Australia’s 2026 Venice Biennale pavilion signed another letter calling for Sabsabi to be reinstated, and endorsing the selection process that chose Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino to represent Australia.

“We believe that revoking support for the current Australian artist and curator representatives for Venice Biennale 2026 is antithetical to the goodwill and hard-fought artistic independence, freedom of speech and moral courage that is at the core of arts in Australia,” they wrote.

But two of them, James Nguyen and Hayley Millar Baker, had also signed the letter calling for the exclusion of Patir and Israel, which declared: “Art does not happen in a vacuum ... Any work that officially represents the state of Israel is an endorsement of its genocidal policies.”

The two cases are not identical. Creative Australia unanimously decided to withdraw Sabsabi’s appointment after a question in parliament drew attention to the politics of some of his earlier art, in particular YOU* *from 2007, a digital work which features images and audio of then Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah is portrayed wreathed in beams of light, “suggestive of divine illumination”, according to Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Patir never opened her exhibition at the 2024 Biennale. The campaign against “any official representation of the state of Israel on the international cultural stage” did not succeed, but the artist chose to demonstrate her own support for a ceasefire-hostage deal by keeping it visible only in glimpses through windows in the Israeli pavilion. Organisers stated the work “awaits inside for the moment when hearts can once again be open to art”.

While some of Sabsabi’s content has depicted terrorists or terrorism (YOU* *has Nasrallah, while the previous year’s Thank You Very Much shows the planes flying into the World Trade Centre), Patir’s work, *M/otherland, *had no connection to the conflict. It was an installation that reimagined fertility goddesses as real-life mothers.

The signatures on the two letters put the lie to the claim that support of Sabsabi is all about artistic censorship. Many people in the arts community and beyond clearly apply a double standard that equates to “no censorship of art unless it’s Israeli”. Jewish creatives in Australia have been the victims of this double standard, too.

Since the Hamas October 7 attack, many have reported feeling threatened by their colleagues’ unlimited support for the Palestinian cause and lack of sympathy for Israeli victims. The doxing of more than 600 members of the Jewish creatives WhatsApp group in February 2024 brought the issue to a head and exposed hundreds of Jewish artists to victimisation, exclusion and bullying. Any connection with Israel – or simply a Jewish name or heritage – has led to creatives being excluded.

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While many Jewish artists are naturally afraid to share their experience*s *on the record, I know of several shocking cases, including an established artist dropped by a gallery that had represented her for years; a young gallery worker who left her job after being confronted with antisemitic stereotypes; and an emerging artist with a recognisably Jewish family name who went from having several projects a year accepted to having every application rejected since October 7.

It is so dire that sculptor Nina Sanadze has founded Goldstone Gallery for the express purpose of platforming artists cancelled for political reasons, predominantly Jewish and Israeli artists.

Opposing any censorship of art or political interference in artistic processes is a legitimate position. This is the position that I hold, and I don’t think Sabsabi’s appointment should have been retracted. The opposite position – that art is inherently political, and that boycotts are a legitimate technique to advance a political agenda or protect a society – can also be argued, though it is an offence against freedom of expression which rarely delivers change for good.

Deborah Stone is editor-in-chief of The Jewish Independent, where an earlier version of this article was published. Additional research by Kate Lewis and Danny Companez.